'What do you mean?'
'Well, if you find that out for me, and help with the partition, I'll make you my wife, and then you and the kid will have a home of your own.'
'Your wife!'
'Ay—I knew what you would say. But where he's gone is a long way off, round the other side of the world, and he has married a Spanish woman there, with sugar plantations and slaves, and they have a fine family. He'll never show his face in England. He daren't, I tell you. So we may as well——'
'You!'—the woman turned and faced him, in a flame of scorn. Her eyes sparkled, she breathed passionately through her rigid nostrils, her bosom heaved. 'You—you dare propose this to me?'
He stood up.
'Why not? I speak for your advantage.'
'For my advantage—to be with you—head to head, hand to hand—with you!' She quivered with fury, her very hair bristled. 'You? If I had you between tongs, I would throw you into the ashpit. Leave this house!'
Olver's face turned plum colour.
'Jane! Will you dare try it on without me?'