They have been purchased at the price of
much hunger, hard labour, and want of rest. If you CAN take them--do--on
condition that you leave this place upon the instant, and enter no more
into that room, where he sits now, expecting your return.'
'Six guineas,' said the blind man, shaking his head, 'though of the
fullest weight that were ever coined, fall very far short of twenty
pounds, widow.'
'For such a sum, as you know, I must write to a distant part of the
country. To do that, and receive an answer, I must have time.'
'Two days?' said Stagg.
'More.'
'Four days?'
'A week. Return on this day week, at the same hour, but not to the
house. Wait at the corner of the lane.'
'Of course,' said the blind man, with a crafty look, 'I shall find you
there?'
'Where else can I take refuge? Is it not enough that you have made
a beggar of me, and that I have sacrificed my whole store, so hardly
earned, to preserve this home?'
'Humph!' said the blind man, after some consideration. 'Set me with my
face towards the point you speak of, and in the middle of the road. Is
this the spot?'
'It is.'
'On this day week at sunset. And think of him within doors.
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