“Hush! mind what you are saying, girl,” cried Shearman. “Remember you are in England, and people are not permitted to speak their minds as freely as in the States.”
“Dunno ’bout dat,” returned Tilda. “I knows ’im, an’ I mean to tell all ’bout de cuss, come what may.”
“Silence! Come along, and cease your clattering, you foolish wench,” said Shearman, dragging her forcibly from the spot.
Doctor Bourne broke down; his last hope was gone. It was evident enough that Tilda would swear to him—we won’t say till she was black in the face, for that she was already—but she would swear to him while she had the power of speech.
Bourne felt convinced of this. He knew pretty well the temperament and disposition of the young woman who had come across the seas to give evidence against him. He knew that she would not budge an inch when she had once made up her mind.
She had years before been forcibly impressed with the fact that her mistress had met with her death through foul play, and at the time of her decease she had not scrupled to say so.
She had been throughout her life devotedly attached to the planter’s daughter. This is not at all surprising, seeing that “Tilda,” as she was termed, had been a “help” in the family since she was little more than a child.
“Curse her!” exclaimed Bourne through his clenched teeth. “I wish the ship that brought her over had sunk to the bottom of the sea before she set foot on these shores. The game is up—they’ll prove their case, and I am lost—lost!”
He was so miserable, so completely overcome, that he would fain have burst out into tears, but his eyes were dry and bloodshot, and his tongue was hot and parched; there was a singing in his ear like the murmur of rushing waters; his temples throbbed painfully, and he fell back in the cushions of his brougham in a state of prostration.
Something seemed to whisper to him, “Can’t she be bribed?” At this suggestion hope dawned again upon him for a moment, but it was only for a fleeting moment or so, and he came to the conclusion that bribery in her case would be an impossibility.