"It's meddling with what you have nothing to do with."

"Well now, what will you give me not to go?" He said these words, as he
said most of his words, in a languid, lingering way, but he turned and
faced her with an abrupt glance.

He and she were standing at the head of the first staircase in the
unfurnished corridor. It was the middle of the afternoon; no one chanced
to be passing. He, light-moving, pretty fellow as he was, leaned on the
wall and glanced at her sharply. She stood erect, massive, not only in
her form, but in the strength of will that she opposed to his, and a red
flush slowly mantled her pale, immobile face.

"I don't know what you want of me," she said. "Money's the thing you
love, and I haven't any money; but whether I had or not, I would give
you _nothing_." She turned at the last word.

Then Harkness, taking the chiding and jeers of all his companions
good-naturedly, and giving them precisely the same excuses that he had
given to Eliza, started for Quebec.

What was more remarkable, he actually brought back the old preacher with
him--brought him, or rather led him, to the Harmon house, for the old
man was seemingly quite passive. This was an accomplished fact when
Eliza and Harkness met again.




CHAPTER IX.