Dainty will come and fix you up in one of your old gowns, and dress your hair—''
''Don''t go to sleep here, Sue!'' said Maud, leaning from her chair and putting her hand towards me. ''There''s danger here.''
I took up my knife again, and she drew her hand back. I said,
''You think I don''t know danger? You think that, in looking at you, I''m not seeing danger with a face—a false face, with an actress mouth—with lying blushes, and two brown treacherous eyes?''
The words were like clinker on my tongue: they were awful, but I must spit them out or swallow them and choke. She held my gaze, and her eyes did not seem treacherous, at all. I turned the knife. The
blade took up the light of the lamp and sent it darting across her cheek.
''I came here to kill you,'' I said.
Mrs Sucksby shifted in her seat. Maud kept her glittering gaze on mine.
''You came to Briar,'' she said, ''to do that. . .''
Then I looked away and let the knife fall. I felt suddenly tired, and sick. I felt all the walking I had done, and all the careful watching. Now nothing was as I had thought it would be. I turned to Mrs Sucksby.
''Can you sit,'' I said, ''and hear her tease me? Can you know the wicked trick she played me, and have her here, and not want to throttle her?'' I meant it; and yet it sounded like bluster, too. I looked around the room. ''Mr Ibbs, can you?'' I said. ''Dainty, shouldn''t you like to shake her to pieces, in my behalf?''