'If I stay in town all night, would you go down with me to-morrow?'
'Maybe; but, I say, what do ye mean?'
She leaned her elbows on her knees, and, with her thin face between her hands, peered scrutinisingly into her visitor's face. There was a great contrast between them, the rich girl and the poor, each the representative of a class so widely separated that the gulf seems well-nigh impassable.
'I don't mean anything, except that I want to help working girls. I so wished for Liz, she was so clever and shrewd; she could have told me just what to do. You can help me if you like; you must take her place. And at Bourhill you will have a rest—nothing to do but eat and sleep, and walk in the country. You will lose that dreadful paleness, which has always haunted me whenever I thought of you.'
A curious tremor was visible on the face of the little seamstress, a movement of every muscle, and her nerveless fingers could not grasp the needle.
'A' richt,' she replied rather huskily. 'I'll come. What time the morn?'
'What time can you be ready? It is quite the same to me when I go. I have nothing to do.'
'Well, I can be ready ony time efter twelve; but, I say, what if, when I come back, they've gi'en my wark to somebody else? That's certain; ye should see the crood waitin' for it—fechtin' for it almost like wild cats.'
Gladys shivered, and heavy tears gathered in her eyes as she rose from her chair.
'Never mind that. It will be my concern—that is, if you are willing to trust me?'