Then with quick remorse she put her arms tenderly round her, raised the dishevelled grey-streaked head on her shoulder, and stooping, kissed the marred face, her own lips quivering.
"You are not alone," said the girl with her whole soul.

"You shall never be alone while I live.

Now tell me." She made the white and gasping woman sit up in a corner of the settle, and she herself got a stool and established herself a little way off, frowning, self-contained, and determined to make out the truth.
"Shall I send the children upstairs ?" she asked.
"No!" said the boy, suddenly, in his husky voice, shaking his head with energy, "I'm not a-going." "Oh! he's safe--is Willie," said Mrs.Hurd, looking at him, but strangely, and as it were from a long distance, "and the others is too little." Then gradually Marcella got the story out of her--first, the misery of alarm and anxiety in which she had lived ever since the Tudley End raid, owing first to her knowledge of Hurd's connection with it, and with the gang that had carried it out; then to her appreciation of the quick and ghastly growth of the hatred between him and Westall; lastly, to her sense of ingratitude towards those who had been kind to them.
"I knew we was acting bad towards you.

I told Jim so.

I couldn't hardly bear to see you come in.