Isaac!'

He looked up with the unwillingness of one who hates the sound he hears,
and saw her standing on the lowest step. Her black hair had fallen upon
her shoulders, her quick breath shook the shawl she held about her, and
the light in her hand showed the anguished brightness of the eyes.

'Isaac, are yer comin up?'

The question maddened him. He turned to look at her more fixedly.

'Comin up? noa, I'm not comin up--so now yer know. Take yerself off, an
be quick.'

She trembled.

'Are yer goin to sleep down 'ere, Isaac?'

'Aye, or wherever I likes: it's no concern o' yourn. I'm no 'usband o'
yourn from this day forth. Take yourself off, I say!--I'll 'ave no thief
for _my_ wife!'

But instead of going she stepped down into the kitchen. His words had
broken her down; she was crying again.

'Isaac, I'd ha' put it back,' she said, imploring. 'I wor goin in to
Bedford to see Mr. Grimstone--'ee'd ha' managed it for me. I'd a worked
extra--I could ha' done it--if it 'adn't been for Timothy. If you'll
'elp--an you'd oughter, for yer _are_ my 'usband, whativer yer may say--
we could pay John back--some day. Yo can go to 'im, an to Watson, an say
as we'll pay it back--yo _could_, Isaac. I can take ter the plattin
again, an I can go an work for Mrs. Drew--she asked me again lasst week.
Mary Anne ull see to the childer. You go to John, Isaac, to-morrer--an--
an--to Watson. All they wants is the money back. Yer couldn't--yer
couldn't--see me took to prison, Isaac.'

She gasped for breath, wiping the mist from her eye with the edge of her
shawl.

But all that she said only maddened the man's harsh and pessimist nature
the more. The futility of her proposals, of her daring to think, after
his fiat and the law's had gone forth, that there was any way out of
what she had done, for her or for him, drove him to frenzy. And his
wretched son was far away; so he must vent the frenzy on her. The
melancholia, which religion had more or less restrained and comforted
during a troubled lifetime, became on this tragic night a wild-beast
impulse that must have its prey.

He rose suddenly and came towards her, his eyes glaring, and a burst of
invective on his white lips. Then he made a rush for a heavy stick that
leant against the wall.

She fled from him, reached her bedroom in safety, and bolted the door.
She heard him give a groan on the stairs, throw away the stick, and
descend again.

Then for nearly two hours there was ab