"Yes."
"I spoke loud. You don't think she heard what I said?"
"Oh, no. She's busy with Mrs. Goudie."
"I wouldn't like for her to hear us discussing her victuals as though she was an animal."
"You might have thought she was verily an animal," said Mavis, "if you'd seen her at the first meals we set before her. And even now it brings a lump into my throat to watch her."
"Just so."
"When I told her to undress that night to wash herself, she was a sight to break one's heart. Her poor little ribs were almost sticking through the skin; and, Will, I thought of one of ours ever being treated so."
Dale got up from the table, his face glowing redly, his brows frowning; and he stretched his arms to their full length.
"By Jupiter!" he said thickly, "if only Mrs. Neath had been a man, I'd 'a' given him—well, at the least, I'd 'a' given him a piece of my mind. I'd have told him what I thought of him."
"I promise you," said Mavis, "that I told Mrs. Neath what I thought of her."