'Do you wish to speak to me? I am Miss Haddon.'
'Yes; I know you are.'
Then it flashed upon me who she was.
'You are Mr Wentworth's housekeeper?'
'Yes.'
My heart sank with a foreboding of some evil, and for a moment I could not utter a word. Then screwing up my courage, I asked in as matter-of-course a tone as I could assume: 'He is quite well, I hope?'
'Nobody cares whether he's ill or well, I expect.'
'You are very much mistaken!' I replied, in some agitation. 'Every one who knows him would care a great deal! You ought to know that they would.'
I suppose my face and tone satisfied her that I was so far saying what I thought, though she only shifted her ground of offence in consequence.
'If he was ill he wouldn't be wanting people's pity.'