As Butler spoke, he placed his arm round the weeping girl and drew her, with some violence, along the footpath; but they had scarcely reached the bend which led into the open moonlight when Mary Derwent stood in the way.
“The little Hunchback, by all the furies!” exclaimed Butler, girding the waist of his companion with a firm arm and attempting to drag her forward, though she struggled in his embrace, and with tears and sobs entreated him to free her.
“Jane—sister! you will not go with this wicked man; listen to me before you take this dreadful step! Ask him where he obtained the money which he but now boasted of. Jane, I have never, in the whole course of my life, told you a falsehood. Believe me now—this wicked man dares not deny what I say. He is another woman’s husband! I heard him make the promise—I saw him on his way to perform that promise! Jane, it is a married man for whom you were about to forsake us. Let him deny it if he dare.”
“Out of my path, lying imp! before I trample your shapeless carcass under my feet!” cried Butler, through his shut teeth.
But the undaunted girl kept her station, and her stately voice told how little effect his taunt on her deformity had made.
“I have told no lie,” she exclaimed boldly, “and you dare not accuse me of it. Last evening I heard all that passed between you and the strange white woman who lives among the Shawnees. Jane, look in that face. Is there no guilt there?”
“You do not believe this,” said Butler, still attempting to draw the wretched girl away.
“Yes, I do!” cried Jane, with sudden vehemence, and leaping from his grasp she flung her arms around Mary where she stood, and urged his departure with a degree of energy that he could no longer contend against. Baffled and full of rage, he loaded them both with bitter imprecations, and pushed out into the stream. Locked in each other’s arms, the sisters saw him depart; one shedding tears of penitence and shame, the other full of thanksgiving.
As they stood thus, unable to speak from excess of feeling, the young vines were torn apart just above them, a pair of glittering eyes looked through, and a voice that made them cling closer to each other broke upon the night, sharp and wild as the cry of an angry bird.
“Look up, that I may see the pale face that comes between Tahmeroo and her love!”