I am afraid of dogs, as well as of several other things. Before he reached me the door opened.
A little maid stood within it. Fear of the dog, scarce a yard away, impelled me in.
"Away, Kino! Away, I say! Leave the lady alone!"
Kino went back to his own abode, and I was closed into the hall of this large, melancholy house. The little maid waited for some words from me. Before I found any to bestow, the second door along the hall opened, and the voice that had been so uncivil to me in the morning said,--
"What aroused Kino, Kate?"
"This lady, Sir."
The little Kate held a candle in her hand, but Mr. Axtell had not seen me. Strange that I should take a wicked pleasure in making this man ache!--but I know that I did, and that I would have owned it then, as now, if I had been accused of it.
"What does the lady want?"
"It is I, who have come to stay with your sister. Mr. Wilton says she's sick."
"She's sick, that's true; but I can take care of her."