"Chris does not care," said Marie, and she laughed.
143 "I suppose you are still thinking about Mr. Atkins, Aunt Madge. He was only a boy."
"Do you call Mr. Dakers a boy, too?" Miss Chester asked quietly.
"Of course not." Marie frowned; then all at once she broke into a laugh of sheer amusement. "Aunt Madge, you're not suggesting that Mr. Dakers, too, is fond of me? Why, don't you know that he hates women?"
Miss Chester stooped for her ball of wool, which had fallen to the floor. "As a rule, Marie, men are rather selfish, and I cannot imagine a man going out of his way to take any woman whom he hated for a day in the country."
Marie laughed again.
"Oh, don't be silly, dear!" she protested.
She went behind Miss Chester's chair and clasped her arms loosely round the old lady's neck, standing so that she could not be seen.
"I've only ever loved one man," she said in a hard voice. "And you know who that is, don't you?"
Miss Chester put her wrinkled hand over Marie's.