"Oh, don't say that, Gilbert, please don't!" she answered, putting her arms about me as if she would in this way shield and restrain me.
"I didn't mean it, Constance, you know; but Moth'll not stop at anything nor wait for the courts, and once he gets me, there will be no help for it. It would be just like him to put me in jail—but where I am to go I don't know."
"Don't go at all, Gilbert, please don't, there's no need," she pleaded.
To this I made no response, and for a time we sat without speaking, clasping each other's hands. At last, seeing I was determined, she looked up timidly and as if she had found a way out of our trouble.
"If you will leave, Gilbert, why not go to the Blakes? They are such gentle people, too, and Moth would never be able to find you there."
"It's the very thing," I cried, jumping up, "and not like going away, either, for I shall be near you all the time; you are always my good angel, Constance," I added, kissing the sweet creature.
"Then you will go there?"
"Yes; but no one must be told, so that if Uncle Job is asked, he can say he doesn't know."
"No one but Blott, for he must go with you. He will not betray us, I'm sure," she answered.
On Blott's being sent for, she went to him, and taking his great hand said, in a hesitating, timid way, "We want you to do something for us, and we know you will never speak of it to any one."