Page:Lady Barbarity; a romance (IA ladybarbarityrom00snai).pdf/266

 have stretched her word a point. Bab Gossiter herself would have done so, I can promise you.

Still the prisoner was obdurate. And if he, of all persons, refused to connive at his own escape, verily his case was dark. But there was one other. Who knew but that after all he might relent a little under the fire of my eyes? The Captain had flinched before their powers once; perchance he might again.

"My lad," I said, turning to the prisoner, "wait here till I return. I wish to speak a few words with the Captain."

"On my behalf?" says he.

"Oh, no," says I, promptly; for did I not know his disposition was peculiar? Even as I went, however, I could see that he did not set much value on my word, and it was a nice question whether he had accepted it.

I found the Captain sitting before the library fire. The blaze playing on his face showed it sombre and deeply overcast with thought. When I entered alone a visible embarrassment took hold of him, and I believe it was because he had noted the red and inflamed appearance of my eyes.

"I am come to plead, sir," says I, plunging at once into my bitter task.

"My dear lady, I had feared it," he said.

"He is very young," I said, "very misguided probably, but a youthful error is not to be punished with the scaffold."

"It is the law," says he, sadly.