Chater--"
"Don't _speak_! I won't hear you. Here have I day after day been
entrusting my beloved lambs to your care, and heaven alone knows what
risks they have run. My boy--my Bob, who would die rather than get a
living soul into trouble--sees you with this man you have been going
about with. He does his duty to me, his mother, and to my precious
lambs, his brother and sister, by reproving you, and you set this man
--this low hired bully--upon him to murder him. I'll have the law on
the coward. I'll punish him and I'll punish you, miss. No wonder you
were frightened when my Bob caught you. No wonder."
"That is untrue, Mrs. Chater."
"Don't _speak!_"
"I will speak. I shall speak. It is untrue."
"You dare--"
"It is a lie. Yes, I don't mind what I say when you speak to me like
that. It is a wicked lie."
"Girl--!"
"If your son told you he caught me with the man who thrashed him as he
deserved, he told you a lie. He never saw me with him. He followed me
into the Park this morning and tried to repeat what he did on Friday
night. He is a coward and a cad. The man to whom I am engaged caught
him at it and thrashed him as he deserved. There! Now you know the
truth!"
Very white, my ridiculous Mary pressed her hand to her panting breast;
stopped, choked by the wild words that came tumbling up into her
mouth.
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