With a calm and steady gaze she met
the eye of the ruffian, who brandished his weapon before her, and
said, 'I pray you do not commit this great wickedness, nor shed the
blood of a helpless woman, who has never injured you.'
'Oh, come,' interrupted the man in a surly tone, 'let's have none of
that gammon, for it'll be of no use. If folk will meddle in others
folk's concerns, they must take the consequences; we're not such
fools as to put the rope round our own necks, I can tell you.'
'Nay, but hear what I have to say,' repeated Anna, eluding the man's
grasp as he endeavoured to seize hold of her; 'my coming here was no
fault of my own, and I promise not to betray you.'
'Oh ay, a likely tale,' said the man with a brutal laugh. 'We're all
for ourselves in this world, and no mistake; so we shall just put you
where you can tell no tales, old girl.'
'Stop; hear what she has to say: you shall; you must,' cried a young
woman who started up from a table at the further end of the cellar,
at which she had been seated, with her face buried in her hands,
during the foregoing colloquy.
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