'
A light shone on Nutty's darkness.
'Oh, I say, did he hear what I said last night?'
'He did hear what you said last night.'
Nutty's mouth opened slowly.
'Oh!'
Elizabeth said nothing.
'But you could have explained that.'
'How?'
'Oh, I don't know--somehow or other.' He appeared to think. 'But
you said it was you who sent him away.'
'I did.'
'Well, this beats me!'
Elizabeth's strained patience reached the limit.
'Nutty, please!' she said. 'Don't let's talk about it. It's all
over now.'
'Yes, but--'
'Nutty, don't! I can't stand it. I'm raw all over. I'm hating
myself. Please don't make it worse.'
Nutty looked at her face, and decided not to make it worse. But
his anguish demanded some outlet. He found it in soliloquy.
'Just like this for the rest of our lives!' he murmured, taking in
the farm-grounds and all that in them stood with one glassy stare
of misery. 'Nothing but ghastly bees and sweeping floors and
fetching water till we die of old age! That is, if those blighters
don't put me in jail for getting that money out of them. How was I
to know that it was obtaining money under false pretences? It
simply seemed to me a darned good way of collecting a few dollars.
I don't see how I'm ever going to pay them back, so I suppose it's
prison for me all right.
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