All at once she bethought herself, and looked at her watch:
Joseph had been waiting for her more than an hour, and would not,
she knew, if he stopped all night, go away without her! And for
her, she could not forsake the poor man her presence seemed to
comfort! He was now lying very still: she would slip out and send
Joseph away, and be back before the patient or any one else
should miss her!
She went softly from the room, and glided down the stairs, and
out of the house, seeing no one--but not unseen: hardly was she
from the room, when the door of it was closed and locked behind
her, and hardly from the house, when the house-door also was
closed and locked behind her. But she heard nothing, and ran,
without the least foreboding of mishap, to the corner where
Joseph was to meet her.
There he was, waiting as patiently as if the hour had not yet
come.
"I can't leave him, Joseph. My heart won't let me," she said. "I
can not go back before the morning. I will look in upon you as I
pass."
So saying, and without giving him time to answer, she bade him
good night, and ran back to the house, hoping to get in as before
without being seen. But to her dismay she found the door already
fast, and concluded the hour had arrived when the house was shut
up for the night. She rang the bell, but there was no answer--for
there was Mewks himself standing close behind the door, grinning
like his master an evil grin.
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