"
"What has Captain Forster to do with it?" Isobel asked, somewhat
indignantly.
"Oh, nothing at all, Miss Hannay, only, you know, Bathurst used to
be a good deal at the Major's before Forster came, and then after
that I never met him there except on that evening before he came
in here. Now you know, Miss Hannay," he went on earnestly, "what
I think about you. I have not been such an ass as to suppose
I ever had a chance, though you know I would lay down my life for
you willingly; but I did not seem to mind Bathurst. I know he is
an awfully good fellow, and would have made you very happy; but I
don't feel like that with Forster. There is nothing in the world
that I should like better than to punch his head; and when I see
that a fellow like that has cut Bathurst out altogether it makes.
me so savage sometimes that I have to go and smoke a pipe outside
so as not to break out and have a row with him."
"You ought not to talk so, Mr. Wilson. It is very wrong. You have
no right to say that anyone has cut anyone else out as far as I
am concerned. I know you are all fond of me in a brotherly sort of
way, and I like you very much; but that gives you no right to say
such things about other people. Mr. Bathurst ceased his visits not
because of Captain Forster but from another reason altogether; and
certainly I have neither said nor done anything that would justify
your saying that Captain Forster had cut Mr. Bathurst out. Even
if I had, you ought not to have alluded to such a thing.
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