'Ay, I do.'
'You should blush to deny her what she needs.'
'I blush for her being in the world at all.'
Mark turned to go. Then Drownlands spoke out in strong tones—
'Stay! Now that you are here, I ask you to do me a favour. It is not much—merely to witness a document, to attest my signature to my will. I desire you to see me sign that, and it will be the best answer I can make to your application on behalf of Kainie. Zita, call up Leehanna Tunkiss.'
Mrs. Tunkiss was behind the door. She had been listening in the passage, and now appeared in the doorway, after a short scuffle of feet, to give a semblance of her having come from a distance.
'Do you want me, master?' she asked. 'I was in the midst of baking.'
'Stand there,' ordered Drownlands. Then, rising to his feet, he held up the will and said, 'I have been making my last testament, and I desire that you, Mark Runham, and you, Leehanna Tunkiss, should see me sign it. But that will not suffice. I wish you to know its contents, and then there can be no question relative to its genuineness; and, above all, no delusions, no hopes, no schemes can be based on relationship, fancied or real, that are doomed to disappointment.'
Drownlands looked round him. He saw a flicker in Leehanna's eye. She was akin to him distantly, yet really.