"I don't believe it! I don't believe a word of it!"
"I wish in my heart I could say the same, ma'am. But it's truth enough, I'm fearing."
"And if it is—I don't say it is, but if it is—why have you come to me?"
Then trembling all over, Mrs. Collister continued her story. Her poor girl was in trouble. When a girl was in trouble the world could be cruel hard on her. Nobody would think the cruel hard it could be. If a girl did wrong it was because somebody she was fond of had promised to marry her. What else would she do it for? When a young man had behaved like that to a poor girl he ought to keep his word to her. And if he had a mother, and she was a good Christian woman....
Mrs. Gell, who was beating her foot on the carpet, broke in impatiently.
"In short, you think my son ought to marry your daughter?"
"It's nothing but right, ma'am."
"And you've come here to ask me to tell him to do so?"
"If you plaze, ma'am."
"Well, I never!" said Isabella.