There was a dramatic intensity about the situation that was thrilling.
The woman's tone was not loud, but her arm was raised until she seemed to tower above Ben Mauprat like a giantess above a dwarf.
Her eyes glowed with the passion that was moving her, her very bosom seemed to swell until it threatened bursting.
The last words of her sentence were given a force that caused Leonie to almost rise to her feet.
"Stand out of the way!" exclaimed Mauprat slowly, his eyes glowing with rage. "I don't want to kill you."
"You may do it and welcome if you wish," exclaimed Liz, vehemently, "but you shall not kill my child! Do you hear that, Ben? He may not live an hour through the cruelty that you have already shown him, but that hour shall be passed in peace. You beat him last night and again this morning, and ten minutes ago the doctor told us that it would be nursing and chance alone that could save his life, and that chance he shall have! Don't go near him, Ben! Don't try it! I love him as the only thing that holds me to life. Without him there is nothing in all this world that makes it worth living, and as long as I can I will keep him with me. You made him a hunchback, you have robbed him of every hope, but you shall not take the few hours that remain to him. I beg that you will listen to me, for if you refuse, as surely as you take a step in his direction, I will kill you."
There was a hideous emphasis upon the last words that would have told a man more of a believer in the vengeance of a woman, that the worm had turned at last.
But Ben Mauprat was not a believer in that sort of thing. Once a coward, always a coward to him.
He laughed fiendishly.
"'Pon my word, Liz, you are almost as good as a play!" he cried brutally. "If it were not setting a bad example I would excuse you for what you have done, on account of the amusement you have afforded me, but I am afraid that if I did that, the next thing you would do would be to allow this girl who has won your heart through her attention to that brat, to escape, and so ruin all my chances for wealth. The young one has always stood between me and your obedience! He has caused you to oppose my will oftener than anything else. He has caused you to get numberless beatings, and therefore the very best thing that could happen to you as well as to me, would be to have him die. I am not going to kill him outright, but I am going to show you that I will stand none of your rebellion, and that I will listen to none of your threats. I am going to lock that dangerous little rebel up, to settle with her later, and then I am going to give the boy the beating that his mother deserves."