"'Tis all in vain!" she gasped. "All in vain! I shall know nothing, and only feel more desolate. It would be a mercy if that were to kill me! Ah! no. Not yet—not yet!"
Some one was trying the handle of the shop door. With frightful energy Johanna hid the jacket, but not in its proper place, for she only thrust it beneath the cushion of a chair close at hand, and then shutting the door of the receptacle beneath the counter, she rose to her feet, and with a face pale as monumental marble, and her hands clasped rigidly, she said—
"Who—who is there?"
"Hilloa! Open the door!" said a voice.
Some one again tried the handle, and then kicked vigorously at the lower panel.
"Patience," said Johanna, "patience."
She opened the door.
"Is Mr. Todd at hand?" said a lad.
"No—no."
"You are his boy, are you not?"