"I don't," said Kit, rather awkwardly. "Still, perhaps it's better that
you shouldn't know."

"Oh," said she, with some emotion, "I can't tell if you mean to be nice
or not. It's the lazy, feckless people who dislike father, because
they're jealous; and they try to make things hard for me. Why should I
suffer because he's cleverer than them?"

"You oughn't to suffer. I really don't think people blame you."

"They do blame me," Janet insisted. "You doubted if you could trust me
just now."

This was true enough to embarrass Kit, but he said, "I didn't see why I
should talk to you about our business; that was all. In fact, I don't
mean to talk about it to anybody."

"Now you're nicer. I didn't like to feel you were taking particular
care not to let me know. Well, of course, father's no friend of
yours and perhaps he'll like you worse by and by. But, after all,
does that matter?"

"Not in a way," said Kit, pretending to be dull. "You have nothing to do
with the dispute and we don't want to quarrel with your father, although
we mean to carry out our plans."

Janet looked rather hard at him and there was some color in her face, but
she forced a smile.