“Of course he doesn't.”
“How do you know?”
“Never mind how I know. It's enough that I do know, as sure as I'm standing under this tree. You've told me quite sufficient. I feel as if I knew your man as well as I've known two or three. The brutes! And I tell you,'.ella, that if you go to him now, as you thought of doing, your life will be blasted from this night on. He will never marry you. He hasn't gone the right way about that. No, but he'll ruin you and leave you in your ruin; and when he does, may the Lord have mercy on your soul!”
She had said. And the extraordinary emotion which had gathered in her voice as she went on had the effect of taking Arabella out of herself even then.
“Missy,” she whispered—“Missy, you are crying! How can you know so much that is terrible? You seem to know all about it, Missy!”
“Never mind how much I know, or how I came to know it,” cried the other. “I know enough to want to save you from what some girls I've known have come to. To say nothing of saving your dear old father's life. For kill him it would.”
Arabella had been marvelling; but now her own difficulty clutched her afresh.
“He will kill me if I don't go to him. He has said so,” she moaned in her misery, “and he will.”
“Not he! He's a coward. I feel as if I knew the beast—and precious soon I shall.”
Arabella started. “What do you mean?” said she.