"I won't and I didn't. I would rather lose every penny than give up Bruce."
"It seems to me that you _have_ lost every penny," said Mrs. Herries rather cruelly, "but you have got your lover."
"No, I haven't," cried Maud, her eyes very bright and her cheeks very red; then suddenly broke down, "Oh, Elspeth, do help me, or I'll lose him altogether. He won't marry me unless I have the money, and I haven't got it."
But Elspeth was not going to yield to a few crocodile tears.
"You can get the money when Angus is hanged," she retorted.
Maud dried her eyes viciously.
"Very well," she cried, with a stamp, "you're a hard-hearted girl and a beast. I hate and detest you. I came here to save your husband, but now he can hang."
"Very good. Now you can go."
But this was not what Miss Tedder wanted.
"See here," she said, becoming business-like, and speaking in a hard voice, "if you and Angus will promise to give me half the income, I'll save him."