“And the man?”
“Oh, they say he’ll get scarcely anything, if anything. Two or three months, perhaps. He is ‘protected.’ It makes my blood boil.”
Artois was silent, waiting for her to say more, to ask questions.
“The only thing is—Vere, Emile,” she said.
“Vere?”
“Yes. You know how friendly she is with the servants. I like her to be. But of course till now they have been all right—so far as I know.”
“You do well to add that proviso.”
“Peppina would not wait on us. She would be in the kitchen. Am I justified in taking her? Of course I could help her with money. If I had not seen her, talked to her, that is what I should have done, no doubt. But she wants—she wants everything, peace, a decent home, pure air. I feel she wants the island.”
“And the other servants?”
“They need only know she was attacked. They need not know her past history. But all that does not matter. It is only the question of Vere that troubles me.”