“‘What should I do that for?’ I said.
“‘If you will only go to Manchester,’ he answered, ‘I will take a store (American for shop) for you, and will spend £50 in fitting it up. You shall have a cigar store, or a picture store. You are a fine-looking woman. You look well in fine things, and I will send you fine clothes and jewellery, and if you wanted to pawn them it would be easy. The pawnbroker would think everything all right. Suppose, for instance, you had a grand pair of bracelets on, all you would have to do would be to go into the pawnbroker’s, take them off your wrist, and say, ‘I want to pawn these things.’ He also said, ‘If you will only do what I want you, there shall not be such another lady in England as you may be.’
“At the time I couldn’t understand what was his object. Of course, I see it plain enough now. I did not suspect he was a burglar.
“He was living at Darnall, making picture frames whenever he could get any to make, and his wife was apparently assisting to keep the house together by washing bottles at a wine and spirit merchant’s. How could I know that he was anything other than he represented himself to be?
“I was suspicious. I remember on one occasion he offered me a sealskin jacket and several yards of silk. Of course, he couldn’t have come by them honestly. I now know they must have been part of the proceeds of a burglary. And well I should have looked if I had accepted them! I should then have been quite in his power.
“But I knew better than that. I declined his present, and told him that if he had a sealskin jacket and some silk to spare, he had better make a present of them to his wife and daughter.
“I also told him that they wanted them much more than I did, and that if I desired to have a sealskin jacket, I would wait for it until my husband bought it, and that if he couldn’t I was content to go without. Some time afterwards he offered me a gold watch; but I wouldn’t have it. That, of course, was stolen.
“I consider that he offered me these presents as one means of getting me into his power. I would have nothing to do with him, and so he tempted me with sealskin jackets, and silks, and watches. I remember when he was speaking to me about Manchester, he said—
“‘If you will only go, I’ll fix you up there nice. You will have a splendid business, and will live like a lady.’
“‘Thank you,’ I said, ‘I always have lived like one, and shall continue to do so quite independently of you.’