'If you come to terms with him he will at once cease his persecution.'
'Come to terms with him?'
'His terms must mean a great sum of money for himself, not for you—or for your cousin. Else he would not be so eager.'
'I can never accept his terms,' I said.
'He will go on, then. If it is a very large sum of money he will stick at nothing.'
'Then what am I to do?'
'Keep out of his way. For, believe me, there is nothing that he will not attempt to get you once more in his power. Consider: he put you in here, knowing that you are penniless. He calculates that the time will come when you will be so broken by imprisonment that you will be ready to make any terms. Nay—he thinks that the prison air will kill you.'
'The Lord will protect us,' said Alice.
Madame looked up with surprise. 'They say that on the stage,' she said. 'What does it mean?'
'It means that we are all in the hands of the Lord. Without His will not even a sparrow falleth to the ground.'