“I’m not so, Miss; contrariwise, it a’most breaks my heart to refuse her, but even so I must do my duty,” sobbed Mrs. Barton, with her apron once more at her eyes.
“Oh, bother your duty,” exclaimed Annella, with indignant vehemence. “That word is as good as a dose of tartar-emetic to me, for I do believe there is more sin committed in the name of duty than ever has been perpetrated at the instigation of any devil in Pandemonium from Moloch down. I am not as old as the north star, but even I have noticed all my life, when anyone is going to do anything so abominably wicked or shamefully mean that Satan himself would blush to own it, they father it upon duty.”
“Well, duty is not the less sacred nor incumbent upon us on that account. Many ill deeds have been done in the name of the Most High, but we do not, for that, worship the Divine name the less,” said Eudora, reverently.
“Oh, Miss, I hopes you do not think as I am a hypocrite as acts wicked an’ mean in the presence of duty?” asked Mrs. Barton, still sobbing.
“No, I am sure you acted conscientiously in refusing to aid my escape. It was I who did wrong. I ought not to have made such an appeal to you, or worked upon your feelings, or tempted your fidelity. But I was carried away by my emotions—I forgot myself—I acted upon the impulse of the moment. The temptation was so strong—death seemed so bitter, life so sweet,” said Eudora, with a deep sigh.
“Oh, how can you be so cruel as still to refuse to let her go? Even supposing it would be wrong, you might do a little wrong for mercy’s sake, and to save her from perishing,” pleaded Annella.
“Do not tempt her farther, dear. God is omnipotent; if He wills He can deliver me, but to tempt His creatures is no way to gain His favor,” said Eudora.
“That’s it, Miss; do right, and trust in Him as can save even at the eleventh hour,” commented Mrs. Barton, wiping her eyes. “And now listen; I hear the other warder coming. Don’t attempt to talk to her as you have to me, for she would think it her place to report the conversation to the governor.”
At this moment, without an instant’s warning, the door was unlocked, Mrs. Barton peremptorily called out, and her substitute admitted.
The new comer was a stern, “grim-visaged” woman, who took her seat with the stolid indifference of one long hardened to her cruel office.