98
WYLDER'S HAJVD.
"I see it all now," she whispered.
"Who — what — what is it?" said he.
"I could not have fancied ?Aaf," she whispered with a
gasp.
Stanley looked round him with pale and sharpened fea-
tures.
"What the devil is it? If that scoundrel had come to
kill us you could not cry out louder," he whispered, with
an oath. "Do you want to wake your people up?"
"Oh! Stanley," she repeated, in a changed and
horror-stricken way, " What a fool I've been. I see it at
last; I see it all now," and she waved her white hands
together very slowly towards him, as mesmerisers move
theirs.
There was a silence of some seconds, and his yellow
ferine gaze met hers strangely.
"You were always a sharp girl, Radie, and I think
you do see it." he said at last, very quietly.
"The witness — the witness — the dreadful witness!"
she repeated.
"I'll show you, though, it's not so bad as you fancy.
I'm sorry I did not take your advice; but how, I say,
could I know he was such a devil. I must go back to him.
I only came down to tell you, because Radie, you know
you proposed it yourself; you must come too — you must
Radie."
"Oh, Stanley, Stanley, Stanley!"
"Why, d— it, it can't be helped now; can it?" said
he, with a peevish malignity. But she was right; there
was something of the poltroon in him, and he was trem-
bling.
"Why could you not leave me in peace, Stanley?"
"I can't go without you, Rachel. I won't; and if we
don't we're both ruined," he said, with a bleak oath.