'I don't know you,' he said. 'I can't see your face. Tell me who you are.'
She returned no answer, but stood with her head aside. He could see that her hands shook.
'What do you want with me—if you won't say who you are?'
'I want to tell you something,' she said; 'but I canna speyk here. Come wi' me.'
'I won't go with you without knowing who you are or where you're going to take me.'
'Dinna ye ken me?' she said pitifully, turning a little towards the light of the gas-lamp, and looking up in his face.
'It canna be Jessie Hewson?' said Robert, his heart swelling at the sight of the pale worn countenance of the girl.
'I was Jessie Hewson ance,' she said, 'but naebody here kens me by that name but yersel'. Will ye come in? There's no a crater i' the hoose but mysel'.'
Robert turned at once. 'Go on,' he said.
She led the way up a narrow stone stair between two houses. A door high up in the gable admitted them. The boards bent so much under his weight that Robert feared the floor would fall.