There. I hope you'll have as happy a
Christmas as circumstances will allow, and I mean you shall."
A flush of astonishment, of indefinable emotion, overspread her face.
"Dr. Renton, stop, sir!" He was moving to the door. "Please, sir, _do_
hear me! You are very good--but I can't allow you to--Dr. Renton, we
are able to pay you the rent, and we _will_, and we _must_--here--now.
O, sir, my gratefulness will never fail to you--but here--here--be fair
with me, sir, and _do_ take it."
She had hurried to a chest of drawers, and came back with the letter
which she had rustled apart with eager, trembling hands, and now,
unfolding the single bank-note it had contained, she thrust it into
his fingers as they closed.
"Here, Mrs. Miller,"--she had drawn back with her arms locked on her
bosom, and he stepped forward,--"no, no. This sha'n't be. Come, come,
you must take it back. Good heavens!" He spoke low, but his eyes blazed
in the red glow which broke out on his face, and the crisp note in his
extended hand shook violently at her.
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