"Aw'n thowt o' that," said that daft man curtly. "Don yo' think aw'n ta'en trouble to come here just to fley yo'? That's noan my way. Aw tell yo' aw'm as sewer as ivver aw were o' owt 'at one road or other Ephraim 'll try to get howd o' Miriam, an' if once oo gets into his clutches when th' drink's in him an' all his evil passions burnin' hot as hell flames, don yo' think it likely oo'll escape wi'out hurt? Does a moth go through th' flame o' th' candle wi'out scorchin' its wings? And yo' sit theer an' talk about law an' its ministers, meanin' th' constables, aw suppose. What gooid will other law or Gospel be when th' mischief's done. Yo' may piecen a cracked pot together, but th' crack's theer all th' same. Aw'm noan what yo' ca' a pertickler sort o' man. Burnplatts is noan exac'ly th' spot for rearin' saints. But aw tell yo' this, Abel Holmes, aw love yon lass more nor ivver aw thowt it i' mi natur' to love any human being. Aw'n seen her come up sin' oo began to lisp mi name. Aw'n borne her i' these arms o'er mony a mile o' crag an' fell; her little arms han clung raand mi neck; her little lips han kissed mine; her little head, wi' its clusters o' ringlets, has pillowed itsen agen this hard owd heart o' mine, and aw tell thee, man, if Ephraim Sykes, or onny other man 'at wronged that maid were at th' bottom o' Satan's pit, aw'd lope in an' glut missen wi' th' awfullest vengeance 'at a legion o' devils could devise." I gazed with a horrid fascination on Daft Billy's face as he uttered these words in a very torrent or whirlwind of speech. The man was wholly stirred from his wonted stolid demeanour. Hitherto I had known him as a morose, silent, phlegmatic being whom, to all seeming, nothing short of an earthquake or an electric battery could move. Well, I suppose the thoughts of danger to Miriam that his silent broodings had conjured up were the convulsion that had fired his passion and loosed his tongue. We ordinary folk are so begirt by law and order and convention that we forget the elemental forces and little realise the heights and depths to which human nature can soar or fall when law and order and convention are swept away as I have seen the dam walls swept away by the waters of a swollen, raging stream. I sat in silence till such time as Billy should recover himself, and then asked quietly, and as if unconcernedly: "And your plan, Billy--what is it?" "Weel," said our visitor, lapsing into his accustomed taciturnity, "weel, aw'm come here to pick a quarrel wi' yo' or you long-legged peartner o' yourn, or both on yo'." "To pick a quarrel! Why, whatever have we done wrong to you to quarrel about?"