"Is it part of your duty to bully me here alone? Why doan't 'e faace the man, like a man, 'stead of blusterin' to me 'bout it? Out on you! Let me pass, I tell 'e." "Doan't make that noise. Just listen and stand still. I'm in earnest. It pleases me to know the true history of this child, and I mean to. As a Justice of the Peace I mean to." "Ax Will Blanchard then an' let him answer. Maybe you'll be sorry you spoke arter." "You can tell him I want to see him; you can say I order him to come to the Red House between eight and nine next Monday." "Be you a fule? Who's he, to come at your bidding?" "He's a--well, no matter. You've got enough to trouble you. But I think he will come. Tell him that I know where he was during the autumn and winter of the year that I returned home from Africa. Tell him I know where he came from to marry you. Tell him the grey suit of clothes reached the owner safely--remember, the grey suit of clothes. That will refresh his memory. Then I think he will come fast enough and let me have the truth concerning this brat. If he refuses, I shall take steps to see justice done." "I lay he's never put himself in the power of a black-hearted, cruel beast like you," blazed out the woman, furious and frightened at once. "Has he not? Ask him. You don't know where he was during those months? I thought you didn't. I do. Perhaps this child--perhaps the other woman's the married one--" Phoebe dropped her basket and her face grew very pale before the horrors thus coarsely spread before her. She staggered and felt sick at the man's last speech. Then, with one great sob of breath, she turned her back on him, nerved herself to use her shaking legs, and set off at her best speed, as one running from some dangerous beast of the field.