‘I have heard about it,’ said Hetta.  ‘He never told me himself.’

’Oh, I do so wish that I knew the truth.  I know nothing.  Of course, Miss Carbury, I love him.  I do love him so dearly!  I hope you don’t think I would have done it if I hadn’t loved him better than anybody in the world.  Don’t you think that if a girl loves a man,—­really loves him,—­that ought to go before everything?’

This was a question that Hetta was hardly prepared to answer.  She felt quite certain that under no circumstances would she run away with a man.  ‘I don’t quite know.  It is so hard to say,’ she replied.

’I do...