"Hush little girl, hush," he said, "don’t cry, did your grandmother tell you what I suggested about—about you and her going away——?"
"She told me—she told me, and she said she wouldn’t hev it, she said that I must marry Abram."
"You never shall, Betty, don’t cry, I swear before Heaven you never shall, trust me, rely on me in this, for rather than that, I would kill the man, kill him with my two hands. Betty, you hear me?"
"Aye I hear ’ee; say it again Allan, say it over again, say as ’ee would kill he, rather than I should marry he."
"I mean it, and it shall never be, and your grandmother then will not agree to my plan. Well, it does not matter, you will be perhaps happier without her, I shall find some place where neither your grandmother nor Abram Lestwick will trouble you, with people who will be good and kind to you and will make your life happy. Your future shall be protected, too."
"Let me stay. Let me stay here, and bide with ’ee, don’t, don’t send me away from ’ee Allan, don’t ’ee send me away."
"Hush," he said. "Hush," he was bitterly disappointed, he had thought all arranged, and now—but her pitiful crying wrung his heart, poor little maid, poor dear little soul, he put his arm about her and tried to soothe and quiet her.
"Betty, Betty, don’t cry, don’t cry, it hurts me to hear you cry and child, try and understand how—how impossible it all is. There is no other way, you yourself will see it and understand it presently."
"Don’t send me away from ’ee for I shall die, I shall die if ’ee do." She was nestling close to him, holding his hand in both her own, pressing it against her wet cheek.
Supposing someone should happen down the road and what more likely—oh no, this would never do.
"Come, Betty! Come, be brave, we must talk of this."
Not far away was the little green gate, and he drew her towards it and in the deep shadows of the wall a man flattened himself against the brickwork and held his breath as they passed him so closely, that he might have stretched out his hand and touched them as they went, a man who was shaking strangely with passion and whose eyes gleamed from the dark shadows. And then the little green door opened and took them and Abram Lestwick stepped into the roadway.