I should like to out-Herod that puppy Rowland,
and make a saint of myself out of a sinner. That would be working out
two problems at once. I wonder whether Netta will help me to solve
them?'
Netta, meanwhile, was receiving a very severe lecture from her brother,
to which she did not condescend to reply, until he spoke of what his
father would say to her meeting Howel clandestinely,
'I suppose you are not going to be cross enough to tell father,' said
Netta'
'I shall certainly think it my duty to tell him,' was the reply.
'Then you are an unkind, unfeeling, unnatural brother,' cried Netta,
bursting into tears.
'Will you promise not to meet Howel again without my father or mother's
consent?' asked Rowland, relenting,
'I won't promise anything? and Howel is a thousand times nicer and
kinder than you are. You have no feeling for any one. I wish Owen were
at home.'
'Netta, you are very unjust? you know I only wish your good.'
'And I suppose you wish Howel's good, too. Just as his father is dead,
and he meaning to be good, and only wishing to see me before he goes to
London, and having plenty of money to do what he likes, and intending to
pay his debts with it, and--and--'
Here sobs and tears came to the rescue of the voluble words that would
soon have worn themselves out--for Netta had no great flow of language.
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