"And supposing you persevered in your obstinate fast, and died by that means, and they refused to bury you in the precincts of the Kirk?" I said shocked at his godless indifference. "How would you like it?"
"They wont do that," he replied, "if they did, you must have me removed secretly; and if you neglect it, you shall prove, practically, that the dead are not annihilated!"
As soon as he heard the other members of the family stirring he retired to his den, and I breathed freer—But in the afternoon, while Joseph and Hareton were at their work, he came into the kitchen again, and with a wild look, bid me come, and sit in the house—he wanted somebody with him.
I declined, telling him plainly, that his strange talk and manner, frightened me, and I had neither the nerve, nor the will to be his companion, alone.
"I believe you think me a fiend!" he said,
