"I want to go home," she said.
He seized her roughly by the wrist. "Ellen," he said, "I believe you
know more than you are willing to tell." He stared down into her
eyes. "What did he say to you, anyway?"
"Who?"
"You know well enough. The old man. Lord, what a mess!"
"Please let me go, Jim," said Ellen. "Now look here, I know
absolutely nothing except what I have told you, and I want to go
home."
_"Ellen!"_
"Well?"
"Can you keep a secret?"
"Of course I can, Jim!" She met his dark gaze squarely.
"Well, rather than have you spreading a piece of damnable gossip over
the village-- Of course you would have told everybody."
"You mean about meeting the old man? But won't everybody know? If he
goes out and talks to people as he did to me?"
"You haven't told me what he said."
Ellen raised her brows with a mischievous air.
"I didn't care to spread any--what sort of gossip did you say, Jim?"
"Confound it! I didn't mean that."
"Of course I could see he was some one who used to live here," she
went on. "He knew father."
Jim had thrust his hands deep into his trousers' pockets. He uttered
an impatient ejaculation.
"And he said he should go out whenever he felt like it. He doesn't
like the automobile."
"Oh, it's an impossible proposition. I see that plainly enough!" Jim
said, as if to himself. "But it seems a pity--"
He appeared to plunge into profound meditation.
"I say, Ellen, you like her; don't you? ...Don't see how you can help
it.
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