“I have trained my left hand, sir,” answered the visitor eagerly, “to do the work of my right, and better. Anything in my power I will do gladly.”
“Fifty pounds is a large sum. For what purpose do you require it?”
“To pay a debt.”
Again the answer was hardly audible.
“Very well,” said Gilead—“and if I accept your terms, and require you, in exchange for the gift, to pick a man’s pocket for me?”
Miss Halifax rose in soft amazement. The stranger rose too.
“I have come to the wrong place,” he said. “It is only a judgment, I suppose; but—O, let me go, sir! let me go before I make a fool of myself.”
“You won’t do it?”
“No.”
The amanuensis forestalled him at the door.