E. Nesbit

“ Mosenthal patiently; snipped off the ends of silk, and chose a fresh stocking.
“Yes; that’s just it. You see I can’t explain. Only, I know. And I want to tell her to be careful.”
“Why don’t you tell her yourself?”
“She mustn’t know that I know. She’d hate me to know. And if she begins by hating me to know, she might end by hating me for knowing. You tell her that it’s you that thinks he’s dangerous. She’ll mind you. You tell her to be careful. Where is she?”
“Still resting.”
“I’m glad she’s got you,” said Denny, suddenly breaking a silence.
Mrs. Mosenthal was quite moved by the tribute. ”

“ She would go out and meet the man. Perhaps he really had something to propose. Perhaps he knew of some way by which she might be free of him. . . . for a price. Money was all he wanted, after all. If she could buy her freedom! That man would know if anyone did. She would go: she was not afraid of him, the hateful little sneak! All the same. . .
She went up to her room to get a dark cloak, and took from the corner drawer the little revolver that Mr. Mosenthal had given her when she first began to spend her holidays at Wood House. ”

“ You can do what you choose. You shall never have anything from me. You can make my life hell—and I’ve no doubt you will. But you shall do it just for the love of the thing, you devil, and not for any good that you’ll ever get out of it. Do what you like. I don’t care.”
She turned; her eyes, used by now to the darkness, showed plainly the path through the shrubbery. She got back to the house, bolted and shuttered the windows and sat down by the table where the revolver lay. Mrs. Mosenthal found her there when she came downstairs at seven. ”

“ It is not a threat. I have something to propose—for his advantage and yours, as well as for my own, of course. I don’t pretend to be disinterested after the way you and your grandfather have treated me. Be wise: come and meet me quietly. If you don’t I shall come to the house. This is not a threat either, but an alternative. Do just as you like about it.
To let him come to the house at that hour in the night, to have Dusa coming down, probably Denny as well, explanations to Denny, and before that brute. ”

“ And you can’t make music out of nothing: you have to draw it to yourself as you play, out of the air round you. It comes creeping closer, closer, like a beautiful ghost, and then you catch it and materialise it in what you call a tune. ”

“ I didn’t mean to tease you; only you and your little revolver were a little too much for my temper. Now here’s the offer; give me a decent income—luxury I don’t ask for; a cultivated leisure for the pursuit of the arts is all I want—say £500 a year, and do what you like. ”

“ If you go on encouraging yourself to thoughts you didn’t ought to have—about how you wish you was playing prince to her princess, and about how hard it is you being as you are—well, you’ll upset everything, and you and us’ll have to part. Not but what I own it is hard, cruel hard. ”

“ I hate the little greedy cat. Well, Miss Pussy, I’ll file your claws and draw your sharp teeth, and make you dance a new way, to my piping. I should like to encourage the other fool, too—the artistic temperament ought to be inventive.” He went on his way, pondering, between the green hedges.
Denny made haste home. He wanted to see her—to look at her—to be sure that she was still in the same world with him. It was only that that he needed—but he needed, too, to assure himself of it.
He found not Sandra—her blinds were still drawn closely, and no sound of movement rewarded his listening—but Mrs. ”