“No, dear Annella; but I wonder you got leave to visit me at all.”
“I believe you; it was very difficult. First I asked my grandfather to bring me, but he refused and blowed me up in the bargain; then I watched my opportunity and put on my bonnet and walked straight here, and the governor refused to admit me without an order from the sheriff; then I went and hunted up the sheriff, and asked him if he would give me an order to see you, and he roared out ‘No,’ as if he would have bit my head off for asking him, and then I went to the prison chaplain, and told him what a kind friend you had been to me, and what a traitor I had been to you, and how broken my heart was, and I cried, and begged and prayed him to get an order for me, and he got it from the sheriff and gave it to me, and so here I am. But I did not come for nothing, Eudora, I said you should not perish, and you shall not, as Heaven hears me,” added Annella, in a low whisper, as she glanced jealously over her shoulder at Mrs. Barton, who was squeezing herself tightly into the farthest corner of the little cell, to be as far off as her office would permit.
“What is that woman waiting here for? It is very rude. Why does she not go away and leave us together?” inquired Annella, in a whisper.
“Dear, it is her duty to remain. I am not permitted to be left alone for an instant.”
“Well, I suppose that is meant kindly, as you are in such deep trouble; but you are not alone now; I am with you, so she can go. Tell her to go.”
“Dear, you mistake; it is not in kindness, but for security, that I am guarded in this way, and Mrs. Barton dares not leave me, even at my request.”
“But I wish to talk to you privately; I don’t want her to hear every word we say,” exclaimed Annella, in a vehement whisper.
“But no one can be allowed to talk to me so; and she is here for the very purpose of hearing all that we have to say,” replied Eudora, sorrowfully.
“But that is very hard.”
“It is the invariable rule; and as it is a wise precaution, used in all cases such as mine, I cannot complain of it.”