"Cynthy!" His voice betrayed the passion which her presence had quickened.
The words she would have spoken would not come. She could think of nothing but that she was alone with him, and in bodily terror of him. She turned to the door again, to grasp the wooden latch; but he barred the way, and she fell back.
"Let me go," she cried. "I did not mean to come. Do you hear?—let me go!"
To her amazement he stepped aside—a most unaccountable action for him. More unaccountable still, she did not move, now that she was free, but stood poised for flight, held by she knew not what.
"G-go if you've a mind to, Cynthy—if you've a mind to."
"I've come to say something to you," she faltered. It was not, at all the way she had pictured herself as saying it.
"H-haven't took' Moses—have you?"
"Oh," she cried, "do you think I came here to speak of such a thing as that?"
"H-haven't took—Moses, have you?"
She was trembling, and yet she could almost have smiled at this well-remembered trick of pertinacity.