And then I'm afraid I threw all restraint to the winds. After urging Will to be careful, too. What I said... The words poured out of me in a torrent until my boy stared at me with round eyes. Sir Appleton just sat nodding like a mandarin. I told him how this girl had set her trap to catch Will, how she had evidently resolved to stop at nothing for the chance of marrying above her station, how she had persecuted and blackmailed us. Whatever she had got, I said, she richly deserved. Not that I believed her story! Oh, not for a single moment! As soon as she had forced Will to marry her, she would laugh in his face for the trick she had played him. And, if all this was true—her condition and so forth and so on—, what possible proof was there that Will was in any way responsible?
"Ask him," said Sir Appleton.
"How should I know?," said Will.
"Exactly," Sir Appleton cried in triumph. "Now, young man, what do you propose to do?"
"I don't know," said Will.
"Then suppose you find out," said Sir Appleton. "Are you going to marry her?"
"No, no!," I cried. "A thousand times, no! She must reap what she has sown. My son shall not pay the price of her wickedness."
"He promised to marry her," said Sir Appleton.
"Prove it," I said.
Oh, if only I had been allowed to see the mad old father and challenge him! We should have heard very little more of Miss Molly Wanton. Sir Appleton didn't seem to care whether he could prove it or not...