"I'm not, nor ever shall be. That watch" (pointing to it) "was hers, I suppose."
"I s'pose so. I never sor it."
Milly took it in her hand and opened the case.
"Here's her name," she said. "Alice Handfield. And here's a motto: Hope, Faith, and Love. And she gave it back to her husband, because they were hard up, perhaps, and Jim bought it of him with a forged note. Oh, my God! What a web of wickedness and goodness!"
"I must go" cried Grif, "I must go and tell them--I must go and put Ally up to it."
"Up to what?" exclaimed Milly, a light breaking upon her. "Up to the forged note! You'll go and tell her that you heard Jim say he paid for the watch with a forged note? And her husband 'll have Jim took up, and you'll be witness against him!" She glided swiftly to the door, and turning the key, put it in her pocket.
"What do you do that for?" asked Grif. "I must go, Milly. I'll break open the door."
"No, you won't," said Milly, taking fast hold of him. "You shan't get Jim into trouble. He's been kind to me, though he is a bad man, and you shan't peach upon him."
"Let me go, Milly," cried Grif, gently struggling.
"You don't go till Jim comes in," she said, still retaining her hold of him, "and then--good God!" she cried, in a voice of despair and horror. "Then, he'll kill you!"