She, with a motion to the cook, who still guarded the stairs, obeyed the order, and for a moment left her watch.
'You must let her go,' said the old man, with tremulous anxiety, beating with his fingers on his knees as he spoke.

'You must let her go.' 'No; no!' 'It will kill her.' 'If I let her go, I shall kill her soul,' said the determined woman.

'Is not her soul more than her body ?' 'They will say we--murdered her.' 'Who will say it?
And what would that be but the breath of a man?
Does not our Father who is in heaven know that I would die to do her a service, if the service accorded with His will?
Does He not know that I am cruel to her here in order that she may be saved from eternal----' She was going to say, in the natural fervour of her speech, 'from eternal cruelty to come,' but she checked herself.

To have admitted that such a judgment could be worse than just, worse even than merciful, would be blasphemy to her.

'Oh, He knows! He knows! And if He knows, what matters what men say that I have done to her.' 'I cannot have it go on like this,' said he, still whispering.
'She will be wearied out, and then we will take her to her bed.' But Mr.Bolton succeeded in demanding that a telegram should be sent up to William requesting him to come down to the Grange as early as possible on the following morning.