"Isn't he after me? D'ye think I'm going to be taken? Let him come here and see!"
Drayton tramped the room, and the floor creaked beneath his heavy tread.
"Speak lower, you poltroon!" Hugh whispered, huskily. "He knows nothing about you. He has never heard of you. Be quiet. Do you hear?"
There was a light, nervous knock at the door.
"Who's there?" said Hugh.
"It's only me, sir," said Mrs. Drayton, from without, breathing audibly, and speaking faintly amid gusts of breath.
Hugh Ritson opened the door, and the landlady entered.
"Lor's a mercy me! whatever ails the gentleman? Oh, is it yourself in the dark, Paul? I'm that fearsome, I declare I shiver and quake at nothing. And the gentleman so like you, too! I never did see nothing like it, I'm sure!"
"Hush! Stop your clatter. What does he say?" said Hugh.
"The gentleman? He says and says and says as nothing and nothing and nothing will make him leave the lady this night."