"Go on. I'm listening, an' I'm thinking all the time."
"I thought--Auntie thought so too--she advised it--that Mr. Barradine knowing me so long, ever since I was a girl, if I went direct to him--"
"Ah!" And he made a loud guttural noise, as if on the point of choking. "Ah--so's I supposed. Then I got a bull's-eye with my first thought to-night. So you went to him. Where?"
"At his house."
"Yes, right into his house. By yourself?"
"Yes."
"You didn't think to bring your aunt with you. Two was to be comp'ny at Mr. Barradine's. So in you go--alone--without my leave--behind my back."
"Will--remember yourself, my dear one. You won't blame, you can't blame me. But for him, you were done for. All could see it, except you. I asked for his help, and I got it."
"But your next move! We're talking about Friday, aren't we? Well, after you'd bin to Mr. Barradine, what next?"
"Then I hoped he'd help us."
"Yes, but Friday, Saturday, Sunday? Had yer forgotten my address--or didn' 'aarpen to remember that I was in London, too?"
"I was afraid of your being angry. I thought I'd better wait."
"Where?"
She looked up at him, but did not answer.
"You've played me false. You've sold yourself to that fornicating old devil. You--"
And with a roar he burst into imprecations, blasphemies and obscenities. It was the string of foul words that, under a sufficient impetus, infallibly comes rolling from the peasant's tongue--an explosion as natural as when a thunderbolt scatters a muck-heap at the roadside.
Then, snarling and growling like an animal, he stooped and cuffed her.
"Will!" "Will!" She repeated his name between the blows. She did not utter a word of complaint, or make an effort to escape. Brave and unflinching, though almost stunned, she raised her white blood-stained face for him to strike again each time that he buffed it from him. "Will!" "Will!"
But her courage and submissiveness were driving him mad, had changed suspicion to certainty. Only guilt could make her take her punishment this way. Nevertheless she must confess the guilt herself. Even in his fury, he remembered to hold his hand open and not clench it--like a cruelly strong animal, tormenting its prey before killing, careful to keep it alive.
"Answer me. Go on with your tale."
"Then stop beating me, and I'll tell you."