He stepped inside and shut the door behind him, and this frightened me
somewhat, for we were two lone women, and the terror of my country
breeding clung to me. There was, it is true, nothing in the house worth
stealing, but yet a stranger might not know this.
"Doth Mrs. Gaunt still live in this house?" he asked. "Is she not a
woman that is very, charitable and ready to help those that are in
trouble?"
I looked at him, wondering what his trouble might be, for he seemed
well-to-do and comfortable, except for the hat-brim. Yet he spoke with
urgency, and it flashed upon me that his need might not be for himself,
but another.
I was about to answer him when he, whose eye had left me to wander round
the narrow passage where we were, caught sight of a rim of light under a
doorway.
"Is she in that chamber, and alone? What, then, are you afraid of?" he
asked, with impatience. "Do you think I would hurt a good creature like
that?"
"You would be a cruel wretch, indeed, to do it," I answered, plucking up
a little spirit, "for she lives only to show kindness to others."
"So I have been told. 'Tis the same woman," and without more ado he
stalked past me to the door of her room, where she sat reading a Bible
as her custom was; so he opened it and went in.
I stood without in the passage, trembling still a little, and uncertain
of his purpose, yet remembering his words and the horror he had shown at
the thought of doing any hurt to my mistress.
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