“Hish!” she whispered, shaking her finger at him.
She hurriedly replaced the extra plate and cup and saucer in the closet, while Jack, stepping on tiptoes, took refuge in the wood-shed. The rap was repeated just as she reached the door.
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WITHOUT removing the bar, Aunt Patsy called out, “Who’s there? What do you want?”
“I want to see you, Aunt Patsy,” answered a sweet feminine voice.
“Is it you, Miss Felton? Bless me!” And the old woman hastily unbarred the door. “To think of my keepin’ you standin’ outside! Come in, come in, you darlin’!”
In walked Annie, fresh and smiling, but casting nevertheless an anxious and wistful glance about the room.
“I have just run over from my aunt’s,” she said; “really, I can’t sit down. I thought you might have some news of our friend Jack.”
“Jack?” said the old lady, in a voice loud enough to be heard in the wood-shed. “What about Jack?”
“Has no one told you? I didn’t know but he himself—O Jack!” exclaimed Annie, joyfully, taking a quick step towards the door through which the youngster at that moment advanced into the room, “I am so glad to see you! I heard how you had got away, and I was afraid we might never see you again!”
“I couldn’t go without seeing you once more!” said Jack, trembling with emotion at this unexpected meeting. “Though I wasn’t sure you would care to see me.”
“O Jack! why not? Whatever you may have done, I shall always feel an interest in you.”
“An interest in me!” said Jack, chokingly. “Bad as I am, that’s kind!” He spoke bitterly, and drew back from her with a look of disappointment.
“My dear Jack! you are not angry with me?”
“No! you might say what you like, I could never be angry with you. But I didn’t think you would believe anything so very bad of me, just from what other people say. I hoped at least you would wait and hear my story first.” And Jack, still turning from her, wiped his quivering eyes with his sleeve.
“Have I said I believed anything very bad of you?” asked Annie, softly.
“No, but _whatever I might have done_, you said. That is, you don’t quite give me up, in spite of my awful conduct!”
“Don’t you see, Miss Felton,” cried Aunt Patsy, “he’s been so put upon and misused, he can’t be satisfied without his friends take his part in downright ’arnest? That’s nat’ral. Half-way words won’t suit him.”