Page:By Sanction of Law.pdf/298

 "You're not superstitious enough to believe her curse could have any effect on you, do you?" Bennet asked.

"I don't know. I seem to have a lot of troubles.—Somehow I like her, yet I'm afraid of her."

"She seems a good old soul," was Bennet's observation.

"Well, it was good of her to take you in.—I thank her for that," Lida clung to his arm tenderly.

"Where will you stay tonight?" she asked.

"Don't know.—Suppose I'll make arrangements with her to keep me another night."

"I'll be happier tonight than I have been in weeks," Lida sighed as she looked into his eyes.

They had now started to walk along, Lida clinging to his arm when suddenly out of the shrubbery at the side of the road into their path stepped Young John Marley. Lida gave a gasp of dismay and surprise. John Marley stood in the middle of the road as if to dispute their passage, his feet spread apart.

Bennet felt a slight shudder run through the body of the girl at his side. He started forward. Lida stood still, her hand clenching and reclenching nervously about his coat sleeve. John Marley ignored Bennet and looked directly at the girl.

"Thought you'd skip out, would you—?" he snarled. Lida's face flushed with indignation.

"Skip out?—No—Why should I skip out? I'm not yet your wife," she answered with a haughty toss of her head.

"Not yet—but you will be," Marley threatened.