d lying on
the heart, to have a kind look an' a word wi' the dogs an' cows when
they comes down the hills fur the milking. An' the children they mostly
lets come to me now, though they kep 'em from me at first.

Then he told her that he had come a long way on purpose to see if he
could help her; that he felt ashamed of having listened to her story,
and that it would give him happiness in some way or other to make her
life more easy. He explained that he had a great deal of money and many
friends, and could easily give her anything that these could procure. In
saying this he did not disguise from himself for a moment that his
motive was mixed, and that he desired to gain some hold over her, such
as benevolence could give, that he might further examine the problem of
her extraordinary misfortune. Even as he spoke he marvelled at the
strength of his respect for her, which could so outweigh his own
interest as to make it impossible that he should interfere in her
affairs otherwise than with all deference, as if she were a lady.

When he had made it quite clear to her that he was able and willing to
give her anything she should ask, she thought of his words a while, and
then answered--

'I thank ye, sir, but there's nowt ye can do o' that sort, fur if there
was I'd take it from Johnnie an' none other. But there's one thing I'll
ask, sir, an' wi' all yer kind offers ye can't but agree to it, fur it's
not much. Ye've found out this tale o' my life; there's none else as
knows it, save mother lying dead, an' Johnnie I telled fur love's sake,
an' him as lies palsied i' Yarm--God A'mighty only knows, sir, what
Dan'el McGair could tell on't--but this I ask, sir,--that ye'll keep all
ye knows an' say nowt. I did Dan'el a great wrong, for I smiled on him
whiles for the sake o' power; not but what he did me a worse wrong, so
far worse that whiles I think no woman has so sore a life as me; but I
did do him wrong, sir, and fur that reason I'll not ha' his name blazed
abroad, hanging on to a tale as 'ud buzz i' the ears o' all. To tell it
'ud not make _my_ life worse but better, fur now them as sees this thing
says dark things, an' speaks o' the devil an' worse. The times ha' been
when I cursed God an' prayed to die, but, thank Heaven, when I learned
what love was, I learned as God A'mighty can love us in spite o' our
wrong-doing, an' the pain it brings. Th' use o' such sore pain as mine,
sir, isna fur us to say, or to think great thin