'By God!' he said at last, 'I have never seen anywhere else a girl of your sort. There is none elsewhere. I like you.'
'I knew it,' said the mother with feeble triumph in her palsied voice. 'She is a right good girl at heart, true as steel, and as tough in fibre.'
'I have bought the house and the pasture, and the marshes and the saltings,' said Elijah sulkily, 'and all that thereon is. You are mine, Glory! You cannot escape me. Give me your hand.'
She remained motionless, with folded arms. He laid his heavy palm on her shoulder.
'Give me your hand, and mine is light; I will help you. Let me lay it on you and it will crush you. Escape it you cannot. This way or that. My hand will clasp or crush.'
She did not stir.
'The wild fowl that fly here are mine, the fish that swim in the fleets are mine,' he went on; 'I can shoot and net them.'
'So can I, and so can anyone,' said the girl haughtily.
'Let them try it on,' said Elijah; 'I am not one to be trifled with, as the world well knows. I will bear no poaching here. I have bought the Ray, and the fish are mine, and the fowl are mine, and you are mine also. Let him touch who dares.'
'The wild fowl are free for any man to shoot, the fish are free for any man to net,' said the girl scornfully.