"Surely you hardly know what you're saying," he said very quietly.
But his thoughts flew to that summer night when his mastiffs howled
against Valentine, and he felt as if a mystery were deepening round
him as the autumn mist of evening deepened in the street outside.
"I do," she reiterated. "I do. But nobody won't see it. And it's no use
what I see. How can it be?"
The words were almost a wail.
"Tell me what you see."
Cuckoo looked into the doctor's sincere eyes, and a sudden rush of hope
came to her.
"That's what I want to. But if you like him you'll only be angry."
"No, I shall not."
"Well, then. I see as he's ruinin' his friend."
"Ruining Mr. Addison?"
"Yes."
It struck the doctor as very strange that such a girl as Cuckoo obviously
was should cry out in such a passionate way against the ruin of any young
man. Was it not her fate to ruin others as she herself had been ruined?
He wondered what her connection with the two youths was, and perhaps his
face showed something of his wonder, for Cuckoo added, after a long
glance at him:
"It's true; yes, it is," as if she read his doubts.
"How do you come to know it?" the doctor said, not at all unkindly, but
as if anxious to elucidate matters.
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