He shrugged his shoulders, with a muttered exclamation.
“You got the money?”
“Yes.”
“And so you’re sold into slavery for five years?”
She made no reply.
“Now, see here, Barbara. I won’t stand for anything of the sort. It’s an outrage. I haven’t enough—quite—to pay the other fellow out; but I’ll arrange it with him—or her. Is it a man or a woman slave-holder, Barbara?”
She hesitated.
“I—don’t know,” she said, “not yet.”
“You don’t know?” he echoed. “Why, this is more preposterous than the other. Of course you’ll have to know.”
“It is quite true,” she said quietly. “I only know that I must be ready to leave home at a minute’s notice.”