"Trampling on me? Why, I have never spoken to M. Doumer!"
M. Doumer was promptly in the breach.
"There, my dear--you hear! What did I say to you? What did I say? I have never spoken to this lady in my life--nor she to me! So far as I recollect I have not had the pleasure of seeing her before."
"Then what do you mean?" This question was addressed to me. I was beginning to ask myself what I could have meant. Oh, my feelings! "What do you mean by coming and telling me that this person was crying as if she would do herself an injury because of the way in which she had been treated by M. Doumer? And by saying that she had sent you to demand from him an explanation?"
"I did not say that she had sent me, I did not say it! And you were crying, Miss Frazer, you know you were!"
"Crying?"
"You know that I came and found you crying in the schoolroom."
She began to cry again then and there. As for me, I was swimming in tears already.
"I know that I was crying, but it wasn't because of that."
Mrs Sawyer interposed.