You have got to go back now with me to the office of the
Superintendent, where I will have you discharged and then punished as
you deserve."
Perhaps thoughts of dark and cruel acts he had already been guilty of,
flashed across his mind, and made him tremble for the consequences to
himself. He evidently believed that Agnes knew more about him than he
thought. Or perhaps it was that mysterious influence which a positive
mind in motion--like Miss Arnold's--wields over a vacillating
temperament like the dead-wagon driver's.
Whichever of these causes it was, could of course never be positively
known, but, like a flash of lightning, the fellow changed his
insolent, braggart manner to one of the most contemptible, cringing
cowardice.
"Don't, Missus, don't! Ef I've 'sulted yer, 'pon my dirty soul I'll
beg yer double-barrelled pardon. Please don't yer go to complainin' on
me. For ef I'd lose my place, my wife and young 'uns 'ud starve to
death in no time. I oughter knowed better then to sass you anyhow,
when I seed how good and purty ye wuz!"
"Please don't leave us! don't leave us, Miss Agnes, for you've been
our Good Angel. You have saved our lives!" piteously exclaimed
Mrs. Burton and her children in chorus at this moment, fearful that
their nurse was really going away, and dreading if she did, that they
would all be carried off either to the cemetery or some other dreadful
place.
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