"Look here, ma'am; what am I going to do with the rest of my day if I get nothing for this?" He hadn't done a day's work for months. "The rest of my day is no sort of use to me. I own I haven't been here half a day, but half a day is gone, all the same, and I couldn't think of taking less than two shillings; it's against the rules of my Society to take less that two shillings for half a day, anyhow."
"I tell you once for all, I have no money."
She began to tremble. She had never before been in such an alarming situation as this. She was afraid to threaten lest he should at once seize her and fling her headlong into the ice-house, where there would be no William Crawford or anybody else to rescue her. She could have borne the thought of death with comparative fortitude, but the girl's dainty senses revolted from the notion of contact with this foul and hideous being. She felt that if he touched her she should die.
"Nice thing for you to say!" cried the man angrily. "Take a poor man in here and steal--yes, steal--half a day from him, and then say you have no money!"
Up to this he had been importunate, then angry, but he had not threatened. Now he advanced a step, and shaking his fist at her, said:
"Look here, if you don't just pay me what you owe me I'll----"
The girl screamed, and at the same time, as if by magic, Red Jim disappeared from her sight.
She looked down.
Red Jim was rolling and writhing on the ground, felled by a blow from behind.
She looked up. Francis Bramwell stood before her, pallid with indignation.