"Come!" he said. "Don't you touch me! You've not brought me here
to take my money away."
Redlaw threw some more upon the ground. He flung his body on it
immediately, as if to hide it from him, lest the sight of it should
tempt him to reclaim it; and not until he saw him seated by his
lamp, with his face hidden in his hands, began furtively to pick it
up. When he had done so, he crept near the fire, and, sitting down
in a great chair before it, took from his breast some broken scraps
of food, and fell to munching, and to staring at the blaze, and now
and then to glancing at his shillings, which he kept clenched up in
a bunch, in one hand.
"And this," said Redlaw, gazing on him with increased repugnance
and fear, "is the only one companion I have left on earth!"
How long it was before he was aroused from his contemplation of
this creature, whom he dreaded so - whether half-an-hour, or half
the night - he knew not. But the stillness of the room was broken
by the boy (whom he had seen listening) starting up, and running
towards the door.
"Here's the woman coming!" he exclaimed.
The Chemist stopped him on his way, at the moment when she knocked.
"Let me go to her, will you?" said the boy.
"Not now," returned the Chemist. "Stay here. Nobody must pass in
or out of the room now.
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