"Leave the one to look after the other," he said promptly.
"I couldn't--I should hate to leave Esther alone; if only she could be married too?"
"Well--find her a husband. What about Mellowes?" he suggested jokingly.
"Oh--Micky!" she said. She was not sure if she was justified in telling Rochester that Micky had once cared for Esther. "I thought he was practically engaged to Marie Deland," she said doubtfully.
"That reminds me," he said. "There seems to have been a bit of a row at the Hoopers' dance last night.... I wasn't there--but I heard some fellows at the club talking it over just now. Do you know a man named Ashton?"
"Well, if you don't like him, you'll be pleased to hear that Micky knocked him into the middle of next week," Rochester said calmly.
"Never! Well, I'm delighted to hear it! What was it about?"
"Oh, they were gossiping about some woman, as far as I could make out--a woman Micky had been rather friendly with, from what I gathered--they didn't mention her name, but----" he hesitated. "They spoke of her as a girl from ... I've forgotten the name, but I think it was a petticoat shop----"
"Yes, that was it! What do you know about it?"
"That she'd been to Paris with Mellowes, and Mellowes overheard it, and there was a bit of a fight, and Mellowes said that the girl was his wife...."
"It's only club talk," he said deprecatingly. "Dare say it's all lies."
June pushed back her chair; her brain was in a whirl; she stared at Rochester with dazed eyes.
"Of course you're mad, quite mad," she said calmly.
"Or I am! which is it?... My dear man, the girl Micky went to Paris with was Esther! _my_ Esther Shepstone! and here you are trying to tell me that she and Micky are _married_!" She burst into hysterical laughter.
"I'm not trying to tell you," he protested injuredly. "It's only what I heard; and any way, if Mellowes went to Paris with Miss Shepstone----"
He broke off before the anger in June's eyes.
"If you speak about Esther in that tone of voice again, I shall hate you for ever," she said furiously. "If you must know the truth, I'll tell it to you, and another time just don't judge people till you've heard both sides of the question," and she promptly proceeded to tell him the whole story of her meeting with Esther, and all that had happened since.