“Why?” She looked up at him, at a loss. “I said I’d come. Nobody knows.”
“They soon will, though,” he replied. “An’ what then?”
She was at a loss for an answer.
“Why should they know?” she said.
“Folks always does,” he said fatally.
Her lip quivered a little.
“Well I can’t help it,” she faltered.
“Nay,” he said. “You can help it by not comin’—if yer want to,” he added, in a lower tone.
“But I don’t want to,” she murmured.
He looked away into the wood, and was silent.
“But what when folks find out?” he asked at last. “Think about it! Think how lowered you’ll feel, one of your husband’s servants.”
She looked up at his averted face.
“Is it,” she stammered, “is it that you don’t want me?”
“Think!” he said. “Think what if folks finds out—Sir Clifford an’ a’—an’ everybody talkin’—”
“Well, I can go away.”
“Where to?”
“Anywhere! I’ve got money of my own. My mother left me twenty thousand pounds in trust, and I know Clifford can’t touch it. I can go