"The tears come into my eyes, he spoke so soft.
"'Shall I go and git your supper-beer, Lemon?' I asked.
"'No,' he said, ketching hold of me. 'I won't be left alone in the house with that--that devil up-stairs! I don't want no supper-beer.'
"It was the first time he'd ever spoke of Devlin in that way, and I knew that something out of the common must have happened. Perhaps they'd quarrelled. O, how I hoped they had! It might put a end to their partnership, and there would be a chance of peace and happiness once more.
"'I won't leave you. Lemon,' I said. 'I'll take that wretch his tea, and I hope it'll choke him, and then I'll come to bed too. Shall I make you some gruel, Lemon, or anything else you fancy?'
"'No,' he answered. 'I don't want nothing--only to sleep, to sleep!'
"I made the tea for Devlin, and it's a mercy I didn't have any poison in the house, because I might have been tempted to put it in the pot--though perhaps that wouldn't have hurt him. I knocked at his door, and he said as pleasant as pleasant can be, 'Come in, Mrs. Lemon. What a treasure you are! How happy Lemon ought to be with sech a wife!'
"But I didn't stop to talk to him. I put the tea on the table and went down to Lemon. He was already in bed, and his head was covered with the bedclothes.
"'I'll jest run down,' I whispered, 'and put up the chain on the street-door. I won't be a minute. Lemon.'
"I was back in less than that, and I went to bed. Lemon never moved. I spoke to him, but he didn't answer me; and after a little while I went to sleep.