Page:The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (emended first edition), Volume 2.djvu/307

Rh "You know, perfectly well. Let us waste no time in useless explanation, but tell me, will you—"

He vehemently swore he knew nothing about it, and insisted upon hearing what poisonous old woman had been blackening his name, and what infamous lies I had been fool enough to believe.

"Spare yourself the trouble of forswearing yourself and racking your brains to stifle truth with falsehood," I coldly replied. "I have trusted to the testimony of no third person. I was in the shrubbery this evening, and I saw and heard for myself."

This was enough. He uttered a suppressed explanation of consternation and dismay, and muttering, "I shall catch it now!" set down his candle on the nearest chair, and, rearing his back against the wall, stood confronting me with folded arms.

"Well!—what then?" said he, with the