and she slipt a piece of a coarse loaf from
under her apron. '_Hide_ it mind. Drink nout but the water in the jug
there--it's clean spring.'

'Oh, Meg! Oh, Meg! I know what you mean,' said I, faintly.

'Ay, Miss, I'm feared they'll try it; they'll try to make away wi' ye
somehow. I'm goin' to your friends arter dark; I darn't try it no sooner.
I'll git awa to Ellerston, to your lady-cousin, and I'll bring 'em back wi'
me in a rin; so keep a good hairt, lass. Meg Hawkes will stan' to ye. Ye
were better to me than fayther and mother, and a';' and she clasped me
round the waist, and buried her head in my dress; 'an I'll gie my life for
ye, darling, and if they hurt ye I'll kill myself.'

She recovered her sterner mood quickly--

'Not a word, lass,' she said, in her old tone. 'Don't ye try to git
away--they'll _kill_ ye--ye _can't_ do't. Leave a' to me. It won't be,
whatever it is, till two or three o'clock in the morning. I'll ha'e them a'
here long afore; so keep a brave heart--there's a darling.'

I suppose she heard, or fancied she heard, a step approaching, for she
said--

'Hish!'

Her pale wild face vanished, the door shut quickly and softly, and the key
turned again in the lock.

Meg, in her rude way, had spoken softly--almost under her breath; but no
prophecy shrieked by the Pythoness ever thundered so madly in the ears of
the hearer. I dare say that Meg fancied I was marvellously little moved by
her words. I felt my gaze grow intense, and my flesh and bones literally
freeze. She did not know that every word she spoke seemed to burst like a
blaze in my brain. She had delivered her frightful warning, and told
her story coarsely and bluntly, which, in effect, means distinctly and
concisely; and, I dare say, the announcement so made, like a quick bold
incision in surgery, was more tolerable than the slow imperfect mangling,
which falters and recedes and equivocates with torture. Madame was long
away. I sat down at the window, and tried to appreciate my dreadful
situation. I was stupid--the imagery was all frightful; but I beheld it as
we sometimes see horrors--heads cut off and houses burnt--in a dream, and
without the corresponding emotions. It did not seem as if all this were
really happening to me. I remember sitting at the window, and looking and
blinking at the opposite side of the building, like a person unable but
striving to see an object distinctly, and every minute pressing my hand to
the side of my