"Not so sorry as I am. If I was dirt by the road he couldn't have treated me worse. And I'm not going to suffer it--never once more--not if he was ten times your father!" "What did he say?" "What didn't he say? Not a kind word, anyway. And 'tis vain your sticking up for him, because he don't think any better of you than he do of me seemingly. 'Twas to that man he pointed." She raised her arm towards the farm through the trees. "He thinks a lot more of Timothy Waite than he does of you, I can tell you." "I'll talk to father. This can't go on." "No, it can't go on. Life's too short for this sort of thing. I won't be bullied by anybody. People seem to forget who I am." "You mustn't talk so, Cora. I'm terrible sorry about it; but father's father, and he'll go his own rough way, and you ought to know what way that is by now. Don't take it to heart--he means well." "'Heart!' I've got no heart according to him--no heart, no sense, no nothing. Just a dummy to show off pretty clothes." "He never said that!" "Yes, he did; and worse, and I'm tired of it. You're not the only man in the world." "Nothing is gained by my quarrelling with father." "I suppose not; but I've got my self-respect, and I can't marry the son of a man that despises me openly like he does. I won't be bullied by him, I promise you--a cruel hunks he is, and would gore me to pieces if he dared! No better than a mad bull, I call him." "'Tis no good your blackguarding my father, Cora," said Mark. "Perhaps not; and 'tis no good his blackguarding me. Very different to your Uncle Vivian, I'm sure. Always a kind word and a pat on the cheek he've got; and so have your Uncle Nathan." "Uncle Vivian can be hard enough too--as my cousin Rupert that means to marry Milly Luscombe will tell you. In fact, Rupert's going away because he won't stand his father." "Why don't you go away then? If you were worth your salt, you'd turn your back on any man living who has treated me so badly as your father has." "We're in for a row, it seems," answered Mark, "and I'd better begin and get a painful job over. When you've heard me, I'll hear you. In the matter of my father I'll do what a son can do--that I promise you; but there's something on my side too." "Say it out then--the sooner the better." She found herself heartily hating Mark and was anxious to break with him while angry; because anger would make an unpleasant task more easy. "In a word, it's Ned Baskerville and that man over there--Waite. These rehearsals of the play--you know very well how you carry on, Cora; and you know very well 'tisn't right or seemly. You've promised to marry me, and you are my life and soul; but I can't share you with no other man. You can't flirt with Ned while you're engaged to me; you can't ask Waite to see you home of a night while you're engaged to me. You don't know what you're doing."