“Ah!” said the gentleman, “a Turk turns his face, after washing it well, to the East when he says his prayers; these good people, after giving their faces such a rub with the World as takes the smiles off, turn with no less regularity to the darkest side of Heaven. Between the Mussulman and the Pharisee, commend me to the first.”
These words appeared to be addressed to the young lady, and were perhaps uttered with the view of affording Nancy time to recover herself. The gentleman shortly afterwards addressed himself to her.
“You were not here last Sunday night,” he said.
“I couldn’t come,” replied Nancy; “I was kept by force.”
“By whom?”
“Bill—Him that I told the young lady of before.”
“You were not suspected of holding any communication with anybody on the subject which has brought us here to-night, I hope?” asked the old gentleman anxiously.
“No,” replied the girl, shaking her head. “It’s not very easy for me to leave him unless he knows why; I couldn’t have seen the lady when I did, but that I gave him a drink of laudanum before I came away.”
“Did he awake before you returned?” inquired the gentleman.