“Fling him in, eh?”
“Nay, nay; be not so cruel! Could ye not put him—gently—and—with somewhat weighty?”
She must have been thinking on the subject in detail; for she was not one to whom ideas came quickly.
All was speedily agreed, except the time of payment. The mail-clad itched for it, and sought it in advance. Manon demurred to that.
What, did she doubt their word? then let her come along with them, or watch them at a distance.
“Me?” said Manon with horror. “I would liever die than see it done.”
“Which yet you would have done.”
“Ay, for sore is my need. Times are changed.”
She had already forgotten her precept to Denys.
An hour later the disagreeable relic of caterpillar existence ceased to canker the worshipful matron's public life, and the grim eyes of the past to cast malignant glances down into a white hind's clover field.