'You just want shaking, I think,' said Wych Hazel. 'I did not say anybody put it there. And I thought you wanted to talk of your own affairs? If not, I will go and attend to my guests."
'You are very cruel,' said Josephine, quite subdued. 'Just tell me if it wasStuart Nightingale?'
'No I shall not. You have nothing to do with Mr. Nightingale. You belong to Mr. Charteris.'
'You put me off!' cried Josephine, laying her face in her hands for a moment. 'It don't matter. I can find out some other way; there are ways enough.'
She looked towards the opening where gleams of colour could now and then be seen flitting among the trees. Wych Hazel laid one little hand on her shoulder.
'Josephine,' she said, 'I wish you would break this off!'
'What?'
'Any sort of engagement with John Charteris.'
'I can't,' said the girl drearily. 'They all want me to marry him. There's be an awful row if I broke it off now. And what difference does it make? If you can't have what you would like, all the rest is pretty much one thing. It's a bore; but one may as well get all out of it one can.'
'See!' said Hazel in her sweet persuasive tones,'you never know what you can have. And you can always have yourself. I would break itfeeling as you doif I were half way through the last yes.'