"What have you been saying to these girls?" demanded Mistress Nutter, authoritatively.
"Ask them," the hag replied.
"She declares that Alizon is not the daughter of Elizabeth Device," cried Dorothy Assheton.
"Indeed!" exclaimed Mistress Nutter quickly, and as if a spring of extraordinary interest had been suddenly touched. "What reason hast thou for this assertion?"
"No good reason," replied the old woman evasively, yet with evident apprehension of her questioner.
"Good reason or bad, I will have it," cried Mistress Nutter.
"What you, too, take an interest in the wench, like the rest!" returned Mother Chattox. "Is she so very winning?"
"That is no answer to my question," said the lady. "Whose child is she?"
"Ask Bess Device, or Mother Demdike," replied Mother Chattox; "they know more about the matter than me."
"I will have thee speak, and to the purpose," cried the lady, angrily.