CHAPTER XXVIII 421 to be a mere chimera. Hannah opened.
" What do you want?" she inquired, in a voice of surprise, as she surveyed me by the light of the candle she held.
" May I speak to your mistresses?" I said.
" You had better tell me what you have to say to them. Where do you come from?"
" I am a stranger." " What is your business here at this hour?"
" I want a night ' s shelter in an out-house or anywhere, and a morsel of bread to eat."
Distrust, the very feeling I dreaded, appeared in Hannah ' s face. " I ' ll give you a piece of bread," she said, after a pause; " but we can ' t take in a vagrant to lodge. It isn ' t likely."
" Do let me speak to your mistresses."
" No, not I. What can they do for you? You should not be roving about now; it looks very ill."
" But where shall I go if you drive me away? What shall I do?"
" Oh, I ' ll warrant you know where to go and what to do. Mind you don ' t do wrong, that ' s all. Here is a penny; now go-- "
" A penny cannot feed me, and I have no strength to go farther. Don ' t shut the door:- oh, don ' t, for God ' s sake!"
" I must; the rain is driving in-- "