"It's ten years and more since I was here, and now I've come back to see you, perhaps at the risk of my neck, you—you shrink from me," the man said, with cruelty in every line of his face and malice in his voice.
The woman stood still and silent. The last time, and every time, he had come he had said such things, but only when he threatened to take from her the one thing she cherished did she wince.
"Who was the girl?" he asked, watching her colourless face and staring eyes from under his black, heavy brows.
"She is a friend staying with me."
He laughed, not unmusically.
"Staying with you? A plaything for the boy, eh?"
"No," she said quickly. "No; he is not like that."
Again the man laughed.
"There are different tales in the district," he said. "I've been back long enough to learn that. If he were different, I'd have him out of this soon enough to learn him what to do—only he don't want teaching."
She shrank back a step, and the man noticed it and understood.