‘The door was left unfastened,’ faltered out Inez; ‘oh, do not harm me.’
‘The door left unfastened?’ repeated the man; ‘who left it so?’
‘The woman.’
‘Ah! the old hag—if she has done this she shall answer for it. But where is she?’
‘In the room I have just quitted, and asleep,’ replied Inez.
‘Ah! I see how it is; myself and her have been indulging ourselves rather too freely, and both are equally to blame; we must be more cautious for the future. Come, my girl, you must allow me to escort you to your old quarters, and depend upon it, you will not have such another opportunity as this. Come!’
‘Oh,’ supplicated our heroine, not thinking in the despair of the moment, of the uselessness of appealing to the flinty heart of the wretch, ‘do not consign me, I beseech you, to that dismal apartment again, take pity upon me, a deeply injured woman as I am, and suffer me to escape. Believe me, you shall be amply rewarded for such an inestimable service.’
‘Oh, no,’ returned the ruffian and a malignant grin overspread his countenance; ‘it won’t do, I’m not to be caught in that way; I can very well understand what my reward would be, but they must catch me before they give it me. Ha! ha! ha! Come, come, you must come with me, or I must use force—that’s all about it.’
Poor Inez clasped her hands in the intensity of her grief, and finding that it would be useless to entreat any further, with a despairing heart, she slowly retraced her footsteps to the chamber from which she had so recently escaped, followed by the wretch.
On opening the door they found the old woman stretched at full length upon the floor; and it was evident that it was from her that the noise had proceeded, which so unfortunately aroused the man, and prevented her escape, at the very moment when the chance was before her.