To this Julia replied by asking for her wages. At first Van de Greutz
refused; but Julia, with some effrontery, considering the
circumstances, declined to go without them, so eventually he thought
better of it and paid her. After that she and Marthe went up-stairs,
and she packed and Marthe looked on, closely scrutinising everything.
When all was done, and she herself dressed, she walked out of the
house, with the formula fastened inside her cuff, and the explosive
balanced on her head. And the old man who did the rough work about the
place came with her, wheeling her luggage on a barrow as far as the
gate. Here he shot it out, and left her to wait till she might hail
some passing cart, and so get herself conveyed to the town.
CHAPTER XIII
THE HEIRESS
There was a fog on the river and while the tide was low no craft
moved; but with its rising there came a stir of life, the mist that
crept low on the brown water became articulate with syren voices and
the thud of screws and the wash of water churned by belated boats. The
steamers called eerily, out of the distance a heart-broken cry like no
other thing on earth, suddenly near at hand a hoot terrific; but
nothing was to be seen except rarely when out of the yellow
impenetrableness a hull rose abruptly, a vague dark mass almost within
touching distance.
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