Blood pledged me his word for that."
A faint smile broke the set of her lips, which hitherto had been
wistful, and a little colour tinged her cheeks. She would have
pursued the subject, but the Deputy-Governor's mood did not permit
it. He sneered and snorted at the notion of Blood's word being good
for anything, forgetting that he owed to it his own preservation at
that moment.
At supper, and for long thereafter he talked of nothing but Blood
- of how he would lay him by the heels, and what hideous things he
would perform upon his body. And as he drank heavily the while, his
speech became increasingly gross and his threats increasingly
horrible; until in the end Arabella withdrew, white-faced and almost
on the verge of tears. It was not often that Bishop revealed
himself to his niece. Oddly enough, this coarse, overbearing planter
went in a certain awe of that slim girl. It was as if she had
inherited from her father the respect in which he had always been
held by his brother.
Lord Julian, who began to find Bishop disgusting beyond endurance,
excused himself soon after, and went in quest of the lady.
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