" The contempt checked for a little the
ravages of her grief. "Stop crying," she commanded harshly.
"Nobody is going to hurt you." She thrust the money again toward
the girl, and crowded it into the half-reluctant, half-greedy
hand.
"Take it, and get out." The contempt in her voice rang still
sharper, mordant.
Even the puling creature writhed under the lash of Mary's tones.
She sprang up, slinking back a step.
"I can't take it!" she cried, whimpering. But she did not drop
the money.
"Take the chance while you have it," Mary counseled, still with
the contempt that pierced even the hardened girl's sense of
selfishness. She pointed toward the door. "Go!--before I change
my mind."
The girl needed, indeed, no second bidding. With the money still
clutched in her hand, she went forth swiftly, stumbling a little
in her haste, fearful lest, at the last moment, the woman she had
so wronged should in fact change in mood, take back the
money--ay, even give her over to that terrible man with the eyes
of hate, to put her to death as she deserved.
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