"You know well what I mean. I have fought that woman for you, and she has beaten me. Once she was out of the way, I thought I could win you for myself. It seems I was wrong. Yet what can you do without me? Your good name is gone; you are suspected of murdering the girl, of robbing her, and of paying your debts with the wages of your sin. Do you think the congregation will keep you as preacher? No; you will be cast out of the fold. You will be disgraced and penniless. Where will you go? What will you do--without a name, without money? I am rich; I can save you. But you refuse my help!"
"God will help me," said Johnson, moving towards the door. "He knows I am innocent."
"Will God help me?" cried Miss Arnott, wildly. "He knows that I am not innocent. Go, go! Leave me to reap the harvest of my folly. I have loved you too well; and this--this is my reward. Leave me, I say. Go!"
She looked so furious, yet so imperious in her wrath--the wrath of a woman scorned--that the minister left the room without a word. In her present state of mind it were idle to argue with her.
Deep in thought, Johnson returned to his home. He had expected this interview to end differently. Most assuredly he had not anticipated that the element of love would so have dominated it. Miss Arnott's mad passion, her quarrel with the dead girl, her payment of his debts--all these things perplexed him sorely. He knew not what to think of them. The knowledge that he was so attractive to this woman gave him no pleasure. On the contrary, rather did it cause him to shudder, to wince as at the contact of evil.
"I must release myself from this snare," he murmured to himself, "and that can only be done by paying back this money. Yet where am I to get five hundred pounds? I am hampered on all sides. If I do not bribe this Shackel, he will accuse me of selling poor Tera's pearls. Already I am suspected of her murder. Every one is working against me. It is best perhaps to follow Brand's suggestion and fly. Here I may be arrested at any moment."
The position was terrible. He did not see his way out of it at all. The more he thought, the more perplexed and confused he became. At length he seized his hat, and went out in the hope that fresh air and rapid motion would clear his brain. Knowing how unpopular he was, he kept away from the town and climbed the hill by the lonely path. Here in his meditation he jostled against a man coming the opposite way. The stranger was tall, slender, and as brown as Tera had been. But those keen black eyes and that hawk-like nose could belong only to a Romany. Having seen him before, Johnson had no difficulty in recognizing the man.
"Pharaoh Lee!" said the minister, stopping in his surprise. "I did not know you were here!"
"I'm with my people on the common yonder," replied Pharaoh, gloomily; "we came back the other day, rye--and on no very pleasant errand, either."
"I am sorry to hear that, Pharaoh! What is the matter?"