He accordingly hastened up the steps to the little back room, whence he speedily returned with his basket in his hand.
"You see that I expected how all this would end," he observed, with a hideous smile; "and so I prepared a little treat for the lady. Here's a prime fowl; that brown paper contains ham; here's a new loaf; and this is a bottle of as excellent sherry as one need drink."
The Resurrection Man placed the articles, as he enumerated them, upon the table; and Viola was pleased as she contemplated them—because she perceived in this indulgence an earnest that the promise of her persecutors would be fulfilled with respect to her restoration to liberty.
"We must now take leave of Mrs. Chichester," said Tidkins. "To-morrow evening, ma'am, at nine precisely, you shall be free."
The three men then left the dungeon.
But ere the door closed upon the inmate once more, she moved forward, caught Tomlinson by the hand, and said in an emphatic tone, "Remember your solemn promise!"
"Do not be alarmed, madam. There can be no interest to detain you here beyond to-morrow."
Viola retreated into the dungeon; and the door was shut.
She heard the three persons who had just left her retire from the subterranean prison: the closing of the trap-door also fell upon her ears.
Clasping her hands together, she exclaimed, "God grant that they may not deceive me!"