“I want your soul,” replied his visitor, quietly.
“You needn’t trouble yourself, then, for the devil’s got it already.”
“No—he has not got it yet, Ned.”
“Oh! you know me then?”
“No. I never saw you till to-night, but I learned your name accidentally, and I’m anxious about your soul.”
“You don’t know me,” Ned repeated, slowly, “you never saw me till to-night, yet you’re anxious about my soul! What stuff are you talkin’! ’Ow can that be?”
“Now, you have puzzled me,” said the missionary. “I cannot tell how that can be, but it is no ‘stuff’ I assure you. I think it probable, however, that your own experience may help you. Didn’t you once see a young girl whom you had never seen before, whom you didn’t know, whom you had never even heard of, yet you became desperately anxious to win her?”
Ned instantly thought of a certain woman whom he had often abused and beaten, and whose heart he had probably broken.
“Yes,” he said, “I did; but then I had falled in love wi’ her at first sight, and you can’t have falled in love wi’ me, you know.”
Ned grinned at this idea in spite of himself.