"I would
but ask you, if seriously there can be danger in procuring the
assistance of a serving-man in this place?"
"Young gentleman," said Martha, "you must know little of Whitefriars
to ask the question. We live alone in this house, and seldom has a
stranger entered it; nor should you, to be plain, had my will been
consulted. Look at the door--see if that of a castle can be better
secured; the windows of the first floor are grated on the outside, and
within, look to these shutters."
She pulled one of them aside, and showed a ponderous apparatus of
bolts and chains for securing the window-shutters, while her father,
pressing to her side, seized her gown with a trembling hand, and said,
in a low whisper, "Show not the trick of locking and undoing them.
Show him not the trick on't, Martha--ugh, ugh--on _no_ consideration."
Martha went on, without paying him any attention.
"And yet, young gentleman, we have been more than once like to find
all these defences too weak to protect our lives; such an evil effect
on the wicked generation around us hath been made by the unhappy
report of my poor father's wealth."
"Say nothing of that, housewife," said the miser, his irritability
increased by the very supposition of his being wealthy--"Say nothing
of that, or I will beat thee, housewife--beat thee with my staff, for
fetching and carrying lies that will procure our throats to be cut at
last--ugh, ugh.
Pages:
421
422
423
424
425
426
427
428
429
430
431
432
433
434
435
436
437
438
439
440
441
442
443
444
445