He partly wrote upon it these words:—
“You are a stranger to me, and, rough as I look, I love you, love you dearly.”
Ellen’s eyes darted fiery anger at him as she shunned the smiling black.
He took no notice of her seeming repugnance, but smiled, and in the act showed his rows of shining teeth.
He rubbed out the words he had written, and quickly pencilled these others:—
“Do you wish me to be a friend or foe, fair one?”
“A friend,” said Ellen, trembling.
He placed before her the tablet again, and she read—
“I will be a friend to you, and a true one, on a single condition.”
The girl’s blood almost curdled in her veins as she read what he had hastily scribbled, for she now trembled for her honour and chastity.