pushed him back with one hand while she pointed the other at me
and called me a Jezebel.



Chapter XIX. THE HARBISON MAN

She talked for an hour, having got between me and the door, and
she scolded Jim and Bella thoroughly. But they did not hear it,
being occupied with each other, sitting side by side meekly on
the divan with Jim holding Bella's hand under a cushion. She said
they would have to be very good to make up for all the deception,
but it was perfectly clear that it was a relief to her to find
that I didn't belong to her permanently, and as I have said
before, she was crazy about Bella.

I sat back in a chair and grew comfortably drowsy in the monotony
of her voice. It was a name that brought me to myself with a
jerk.

"Mr. Harbison!" Aunt Selina was saying. "Then bring him down at
once, James. I want no more deception. There is no use cleaning a
house and leaving a dirty corner."

"It will not be necessary for me to stay and see it swept," I
said, mustering the rags she had left of my self-respect, and
trying to pass her. But she planted herself squarely before me.

"You can not stir up a dust like this, young woman, and leave
other people to sneeze in it," she said grimly. And I stayed.