“You ’d take a bondsman rather than me?”
The girl coloured, but replied, “Yes.”
“I’ll teach him ter have done with his cutty-eyed tricks,” roared Phil, doubling up his fists, and turning, “I’ll—”
“Mr. Hennion!” exclaimed the girl, her cheeks gone very white. “You gave me your word that—”
“I never gave no word ’bout not threshing the lick.”
“Most certainly you did, for you—you would have to tell him before—and if you do that, I’ll—”
“But, Miss Janice, you must n’t disgrace—Damn him! Then Bagby wasn’t lyin’ when he told me how there ’d been talk at the tavern of his bundlin’ with you.”
For a moment Janice stood speechless, everything about her suggesting the shame she was enduring. “He—he never said that!” she panted more than spoke, as if she had ceased to breathe.
“I told Bagby if he said that he was lyin’; but after—”
“Mr. Hennion, do you intend to insult me as well?”