"How dare you?" he said. His eyes flashed with anger, and his voice
trembled with the intensity of his fury.
Valmai, who was arranging something on the tea-table, sank down on a
chair beside it; and Gwen, carrying a slice of toast on a fork, came in
to listen. To hear her master speak in such excited tones was an event
so unusual as to cause her not only astonishment but pleasure.
Shoni, too, was attracted by the loud tones, and stood blocking up the
doorway.
Valmai flung her arms on the table, and leant her head upon them,
sobbing quietly.
"Are you not ashamed of yourself?" thundered the old man. "Sitting at
my table, sleeping under my roof, and attending my chapel--and all the
time to be the vile thing that you are! Dear Uncle John, indeed! what
would your dear Uncle John say of you now? You fooled him as you have
fooled me. Do you think I can bear you any longer in the house with
me?"
There was no answer from Valmai, and the old man, angered by her
silence, clutched her by the arm and shook her violently.
"Stop there!" said Shoni, taking a step forward, and thrusting his
brawny arm protectingly over the girl's bent head. "Stop there! Use
as many bad words as you like, Essec Powell, but if you dare to touch
her with a finger, I'll show you who is the real master here."
"She is a deceitful creature, and has brought shame and dishonour on my
name!" stammered the old man. "Am I, a minister of religion, any
longer to harbour in my house such a huzzy? No; out you go, madam!
Not another night under my roof!"
"Will you send her out at this late hour?" said Shoni. "Where is she
to go?"
"I don't care where she goes! She has plenty of money--money that
ought to belong to me. Let her go where she likes, and let her reap
the harvest that her conduct deserves. Remember, when I come back from
chapel to-night I will expect the house to be cleared of you."
Valmai rose wearily from the table, and went up the stairs to her own
room, where she hastily gathered a few things together into a light
basket, her heavier things she had packed some time before in readiness
for some such sudden departure as this.
Meanwhile, in the parlour below the sturdy Shoni faced his irate master.
"Man," he said, "are you not ashamed of yourself?"
"How dare you speak to me in that tone?" said the old man. "Because I
owe you two or three hundred pounds you forget your position here."
"No," said Shoni, "I don't forget, and I'll remind you sooner than you
think if you don't behave yourself! Man! you haven't learnt the ABC
of religion, though you are a 'preacher.' Christ never taught you that
way of treating a fallen woman. Shame upon you! And your own
brother's child! But I'll see she's taken care of, poor thing! And
the villain who has brought this misery upon her shall feel the weight
of this fist if ever he returns to this country; but he won't; he has
got safe away, and she has to bear the shame, poor thing! Wait till I
tell the 'Vicare du' what I think of his precious son."