"Are you going to stay with us for the
next fortnight?"
"No, I have got rooms at the Queen's."
"I thought so. One might have expected you, however, to stay with your
relations when you came to Penzance."
"Oh, that's all gammon, Jue," he said: "you know very well your father
doesn't care to have any one stay with you--it's too much bother.
You'll have quite enough of me while I am in Penzance."
"Shall we have anything of you?" she said with apparent indifference.
"I understood that Miss Rosewarne and her mamma had already come
here."
"And what if they have?" he said with unnecessary fierceness.
"Well, Harry," she said, "you needn't get unto a temper about it, but
people will talk, you know; and they say that your attentions to that
young lady are rather marked, considering that she is engaged to be
married; and you have induced your mother to make a pet of her. Shall
I go on?"
"No, you needn't," he said with a strong effort to overcome his anger.
"You're quite right--people do talk, but they wouldn't talk so much
if other people didn't carry tales. Why, it isn't like you, Jue! I
thought you were another sort. And about this girl, of all girls in
the world!"
He got up and began walking about the room, and talking with
considerable vehemence, but no more in anger. He would tell her what
cause there was for this silly gossip. He would tell her who this
girl was who had been lightly mentioned.
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