He's a
terrible fellow. I doubt if he does not some outrage to us for this."
"Dear! Dear! What shall I do?" cried Desire, wringing her hands. "I
must go. I can't stay here, shut up like a prisoner, I shall be sick
and die."
"Who knows," said Mrs. Edwards, "what this ruffian may do next? He
will stop at nothing. He will not much longer respect our house. He
may force himself in any day. She is not safe here. I dare not have
her stay another day."
"I don't know what can be done, she can't get away without a pass,"
replied Edwards. "It would do no good for me to ask him again. Perhaps
the girl herself might coax a pass out of him. It's the only chance."
"I coax him! I see him again! Oh I can't, I can't do that," cried
Desire with an air of overwhelming repugnance.
"I could leave the door ajar you know, Desire, and be ready to come
into the room if he were unmannerly," said her mother. "I think he's
rather afraid of me. I'm afraid it's the only chance, as your father
says, if you could but bring yourself to it."
"Oh it doesn't seem as if I could. It doesn't seem as if I could,"
cried the girl.
Perez did not come near the store for some days and it was on the
street that Edwards next met him.
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