It was repeated twice or thrice, and, looking in considerable doubt and
trepidation under the hanging boughs, I saw Beauty, not ten yards away,
standing among the underwood.
I remember how white the eyes and teeth of the swarthy girl looked, as with
hand uplifted toward her ear, she watched us while, as it seemed, listening
for more distant sounds.
Beauty beckoned eagerly to me, advancing, with looks of great fear and
anxiety, two or three short steps toward me.
'_She_ baint to come,' said Beauty, under her breath, so soon as I had
nearly reached her, pointing without raising her hand at Mary Quince.
'Tell her to sit on the ash-tree stump down yonder, and call ye as loud as
she can if she sees any fellah a-comin' this way, an' rin ye back to me;'
and she impatiently beckoned me away on her errand.
When I returned, having made this dispositions, I perceived how pale the
girl was.
'Are you ill, Meg?' I asked.
'Never ye mind. Well enough. Listen, Miss; I must tell it all in a crack,
an' if she calls, rin awa' to her, and le' me to myself, for if fayther or
t'other un wor to kotch me here, I think they'd kill me a'most.
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