“Hush! Speak in a whisper! Yes. Did he look, when he was living, so very ill and poor?”
“Oh, jist!” says Jo.
“Did he look like—not like you ?” says the woman with abhorrence.
“Oh, not so bad as me,” says Jo. “I’m a reg’lar one I am! You didn’t know him, did you?”
“How dare you ask me if I knew him?”
“No offence, my lady,” says Jo with much humility, for even he has got at the suspicion of her being a lady.
“I am not a lady. I am a servant.”
“You are a jolly servant!” says Jo without the least idea of saying anything offensive, merely as a tribute of admiration.
“Listen and be silent. Don’t talk to me, and stand farther from me! Can you show me all those places that were spoken of in the account I read? The place he wrote for, the place he died at, the place where you were taken to, and the place where he was buried? Do you know the place where he was buried?”
Jo answers with a nod, having also nodded as each other place was mentioned.
“Go before me and show me all those dreadful places. Stop opposite to each, and don’t speak to me unless I speak to you. Don’t look back. Do what I want, and I will pay you well.”
Jo attends closely while the words are being spoken; tells them off on his broom-handle, finding them rather hard; pauses to consider their meaning; considers it satisfactory; and nods his ragged head.