"Shall I not? Ha!—ha! Shall I not? Five shillings indeed!"
The lady upon this, feeling no doubt that both her wants and his powers of persuasion were made very light of, commenced such a tremendous knocking at the door, that the terrified Lupin at once descended to let her in, uttering such terrible curses as he went that Mrs. Oakley was petrified with dismay.
Foolish woman! Did she expect that her idol would turn out to be anything but a common brazen image?
In the course of a few moments she heard the couple coming up stairs again, and when they reached the top, she heard Lupin say, "Confound you, you always will come with your infernal demands at the very worst and most awkward times and seasons to me. Did you not take ten pounds some time ago, and promise to come near me no more?"
"Ha!—ha! Yes, I did. But I am here again you see. You thought I would drink myself to death with that amount of money, and that you would get rid of me, but it did me good. Ho!—ho!—ho! The good stuff did me good."
"You are a fool," said Lupin. "I tell you, woman, you will be my ruin, my absolute ruin; and then where will your supplies come from I should like to know? Why I have an idiot only in the next room, of whom I hope to make a good thing; and if you had only come in five minutes sooner you would have been heard by her, and I should have been done up here."
"And why don't she hear you now? Have you cut her throat like you did the woman's by Wapping?"
"Hush!—hush! you devil! Why do you allude to that?"
"Because I like, my beauty. Because I know you did it. And whenever I do mention it, the gallows shines out in your face as plain—ay, as plain as this hand; and I like to see you quake and change colour, and be ready almost to fall down with your fears. Ho!—ho! I like that. Yes, it's as good to me as a drop of drink, that it is."
"I only wish your throat was cut, that is all."