The woman stammers and stutters, and finally declares she cannot sleep without a screen drawn before the window.
‘Bad people’s coming and going at night here!’ she says in explanation, ‘and looking in at the window upon the child; and if they touch missy she will die. Missus had better let me put up curtain to keep them out. They can’t do me any harm. It is the child they come for.’
‘Bad people coming at night! What on earth do you mean, Dye? What people come here but our own servants? If you go on talking such nonsense to me I shall begin to think you drink too much arrack.’
‘Missus, please!’ replies the native with a deprecatory shrug of the shoulders; ‘but Dye speaks the truth! A white woman walks on this terrace every night looking for her child, and if she sees little missy, she will take her away, and then you will blame poor Dye for losing her. Better let me put up the curtain so that she can’t look in at window.’
END OF VOL. II.