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twg_000000051300 | dress got marked." "I wonder," Gifford responded abstractedly. "Well," said Kelson, "I'm off to carry the good news to Muriel. Don't wait dinner for me if I'm not back by seven-thirty." It was rather a relief to Gifford to be left alone that he might review the situation without interruption. His first thought had been, could this last discovery be | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051301 | accountable for what he had seen that afternoon? Doubtless, after the information reached the police it would not be long in being conveyed to Henshaw. And he was now making use of it to put the screw on, using the hold he had gained over Edith Morriston to bend her to his will. What was that? Marriage? To Gifford the | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051302 | thought was monstrous; yet if it should be that Henshaw had information which put the girl in his power, what could she do? That she had consented to meet him secretly and listen to him went to show that she felt her position to be weak. If so she might need help, an adviser, a man to stand between her | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051303 | and her persecutor. Thinking out the situation strenuously Gifford determined to seek a private interview with Edith Morriston and offer himself as her protector. At the worst she could but snub him, and the chances were, he thought, greatly in favour of her accepting his offer of help. For from her character he judged she was not a girl to | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051304 | make a stronger appeal to him than the casual invoking of his assistance which had already taken place. He had a very cogent reason for believing that he could be of assistance, although there were certain elements in the mystery which might, in his ignorance of them, upset his calculations. Anyhow in consideration of the trust Edith Morriston had shown | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051305 | in him he would seek an interview with her and chance what it might bring forth. AN EXPLANATION In pursuance of this plan Gifford proposed to his friend that they should call at Wynford Place on the next day. Kelson had returned from the Tredworths in high spirits, the news he carried there having lifted a weight off his fiance's | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051306 | mind and indeed restored the happiness of the whole family. There was no cloud over the engagement now, and they could all look forward to the marriage without a qualm. If Kelson might, in ordinary circumstances, have wondered at the motive for his friend's proposal, which was but thinly disguised, he was in too happy a state of preoccupation to | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051307 | trouble his head about it. "I'm your man," he responded promptly. "It so happens that Muriel is lunching at Wynford to-morrow, so it will suit me well enough. I shouldn't be surprised if we get a note in the morning asking us to lunch there too." The morning, however, brought no note of invitation; a failure which rather surprised Kelson, | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051308 | although Gifford thought he could account for it. Nevertheless he determined to go and do his best to get a private talk with Edith Morriston, however disinclined she might be to grant it. The two men went up to Wynford early in the afternoon, but it was a long time before Gifford got the opportunity he sought. Edith Morriston seemed | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051309 | as friendly and gracious as ever, but whether by accident or design she gave no chance for Gifford to get in a private word. With the knowledge of what he had seen on the previous afternoon and of the change in her attitude he was too shrewd to show any anxiety for a confidential talk. He watched her closely when | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051310 | he could do so unobserved, but her face gave no sign of trouble or embarrassment. He wondered if there could after all be anything in his idea of persecution, and the more curious he became the more determined he grew to find out. But somehow Miss Morriston contrived that they should never be alone together; when Kelson and Muriel Tredworth | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051311 | strolled off lover-like, Miss Morriston kept her brother with her to make a third. The three went round to the stables and inspected the hunters, then through the shrubbery to admire a wonderful bed of snowdrops. As they stood there looking over the undulating park, and Gifford, curbing his impatience, was talking of certain changes which had taken place since | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051312 | his early days there, the butler was seen hurrying towards them. "Callers, I suppose," Morriston observed with a half-yawn. "What is it, Stent?" "Could I speak to you, sir?" the man said, stopping short a little distance away. Morriston went forward to him, and after they had spoken together he turned round, and with an "Excuse me for a few | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051313 | minutes," went off towards the house with the butler. So at last the opportunity had come. Gifford glanced at his companion and noticed that her face had gone a shade paler than before the interruption. "I wonder what can be the matter," she observed, a little anxiously Gifford thought. Then she laughed. "I dare say it is nothing; Stent is | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051314 | becoming absurdly fussy; and all the alarms and discoveries we have had lately have not diminished the tendency." "The latest discovery must have come rather as a relief," Gifford ventured tentatively. "The marks on my dress you mean?" She laughed. "So far that I now share with Muriel Tredworth the suspicion of knowing all about the tragedy." "Hardly that," Gifford | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051315 | replied with a smile. "There can be no cause for that fear. By the way," he added more seriously, "I owe you an account of my failure to gain any information for you with regard to Mr. Gervase Henshaw's plans." "He is not communicative?" Miss Morriston suggested casually. Gifford shook his head. "No, I am never able to get hold | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051316 | of him. In fact, it seems as though he rather makes a point of avoiding us. And if we do meet, he is vagueness and reticence personified." They were walking slowly back along the shrubbery path. The girl turned to him for an instant, her expression softened in a look of gratitude. "It is very kind of you, Mr. Gifford, | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051317 | to take all this trouble for us. And I am sure it is not your fault that the result is not what you might wish. It was rather absurd of me to set you the task. But I am none the less grateful. Please think that, and do not bother about it any more." "But if the man is likely | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051318 | to annoy you," he urged. "Have you longer any reason to fear him?" She turned swiftly. "Fear him? What do you mean?" "We thought he might be unscrupulous and might make himself objectionable." She shrugged. "I dare say it is possible." "I must confess," he pursued, "I can't quite make the fellow out. Nor his motive for remaining in the | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051319 | place. Your brother told me he came across him hanging about in one of your plantations." He thought the blood left her face for an instant, but otherwise she showed no sign of discomposure. "How did he account for his being there?" she asked calmly. "Unsatisfactorily enough. I forget his actual excuse." "Was that all?" she demanded coldly. "I believe | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051320 | so. But it is hardly desirable, as your brother said, to have the man prowling about the property." For a moment she was silent. "No," she said as though by an afterthought. Her manner troubled him. "I hope he is not attempting to annoy you," he said searchingly. She looked surprised and, he thought, a little resentful at his question. | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051321 | "Me?" she returned coldly. "By hanging about in the plantation?" "If he goes no farther than that--" "Why should he?" she demanded in the same rather chilling tone. "I don't know," Gifford replied, set back by her manner. "Except that I have no high opinion of the fellow. It occurred to me he might possibly attempt to persecute you." She | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051322 | glanced round at him curiously with a little disdainful smile. "What makes you think he would do that?" she returned. Her attitude was to him not convincing. He felt there was a certain reservation beneath the rather cutting tone. "I am glad to know there is no question of that," he replied with quiet earnestness. "I hope if anything of | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051323 | the kind should occur and you should need a friend you will not overlook me." "You are very kind," she responded, but without turning towards him. He thought, however, that her low tone had softened, and it gave him hope. "I should scarcely take upon myself to suggest this," he said, "but I am emboldened by two facts. One that | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051324 | you have already asked me to be your ally, your friend, in this business, the other that there is something about Henshaw and his actions which I do not understand. I hope you will forgive my boldness." His companion had glanced round now, keenly, as though to probe for the meaning which might lie beneath his words. He speculated whether | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051325 | she might be wondering how much he knew; was he cognisant of her meeting with Henshaw? But, whatever her thought, she answered in the same even voice, "There is nothing to forgive. On the contrary I am most grateful." They were nearing the house, and Gifford was debating whether he dared suggest another turn along the shrubbery path, when Richard | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051326 | Morriston appeared at the hall door, beckoned to them, and went in again. "I wonder what Dick wants. Has anything more come to light?" Miss Morriston observed with a rather bored laugh as she slightly quickened her pace. As they went in she called, "Dick!" and he answered her from the library. There they found him with Kelson and Muriel | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051327 | Tredworth. A glance at their faces told Gifford that they were all in a state of scarcely suppressed excitement. "I say, Edith, what do you think?" her brother exclaimed. "We've made a rather important discovery. Were you in the middle room of the tower during the dance?" For a moment his sister did not answer. "No; I don't think I | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051328 | was," she said, with what seemed to Gifford a certain amount of apprehension in her eyes, although her expression was calm enough. "Oh, but, my dear girl, you must have been," Morriston insisted vehemently. "We have found the explanation of the stains on Miss Tredworth's dress and on yours." "You have?" his sister replied, looking at him curiously. "Yes; beyond | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051329 | all doubt. The mystery is made clear. Come and see." He led the way across the hall and up the first story of the tower. "There's the explanation," he said, pointing to some dark red patches on the back of a sofa and on the carpet below. "It is not a pleasant idea," Morriston said; "but you see these marks | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051330 | are directly under the place where the dead man lay in the room above. The blood from his wound evidently ran through the chinks of the flooring on to the beams of the ceiling here and so fell drop by drop on the couch and on any one sitting there. Rather gruesome, but I am sure we must be all | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051331 | very glad to get the simple explanation. The only wonder is that no one thought of it before." "Muriel was sitting just at that end of the sofa when I proposed to her," Kelson said in a low voice to Gifford. "I am delighted the matter is so completely accounted for," his friend returned. "What fools we were ever to | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051332 | have taken it so tragically." But his expression changed as he glanced at Edith Morriston; she had denied that she had been in the room. "I have sent down to the police to tell them of the discovery," Morriston was saying. "The fact is that since the tragedy the servants appear to have rather shunned this part of the house, | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051333 | or at any rate to have devoted as little time to it as possible. Otherwise this would have come to light sooner. Anyhow it is a source of congratulation to Miss Tredworth and you, Edith. Of course you must have been in here." "I remember sitting just there; ugh!" Miss Tredworth said with a shudder. "I can swear to that," | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051334 | Kelson corroborated with a knowing smile. "You must have done the same or brushed against the sofa, Edith," Morriston said cheerfully. "Well, I'm glad that's settled, although it brings us no nearer towards solving the mystery of what happened overhead." "No," Kelson remarked. "It looks as though that was going to remain a mystery." The butler came in. "Major Freeman | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051335 | is here, sir," he said, "with Mr. Henshaw, and would like to speak to you." Morriston looked surprised. "Alfred has been very quick. We sent him off only about a quarter of an hour ago." "Alfred met Major Freeman and Mr. Henshaw with the detective just beyond the lodge gates, sir." "Then they were coming up here independently of my | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051336 | message?" "Yes, sir. Alfred gave Major Freeman the message and came back." Morriston moved towards the door. "I will see these gentlemen at once," he said. "In the library, sir." Involuntarily Gifford had glanced at Edith Morriston. She was standing impassively with set face; and at his glance she turned away to the window. But not before he had caught | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051337 | in her eyes a look which he hated to see, a look which seemed to confirm a suspicion already in his mind. WHAT A GIRL SAW With Morriston's departure a rather uncomfortable silence fell upon the party left in the room. Every one seemed to feel that there was something in the air, the shadow of a possibly serious development | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051338 | in the case. Even Kelson, who was otherwise inclined to be jubilant over the freeing of his fiance from suspicion, seemed to feel it was no time or place just then for gaiety, and his expression grew as grave as that of the rest. "I wonder what these fellows have come to say," he observed as he paced the room. | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051339 | "Let's hope to announce that at last they are going to leave you in peace, Edith," Miss Tredworth said. Edith Morriston did not alter her position as she stood looking out of the window. "Thank you for your kind wish, Muriel," she responded in a cold voice; "but I'm afraid that is too much to hope for just yet." "Yet | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051340 | one doesn't see what else it can be," Kelson observed reflectively. "They can hardly have found out exactly how the man came by his death; much more likely to have abandoned their latest theory, eh, Hugh?" Gifford was looking, held by the grip of his imagination, at the tall figure by the window; wondering what was passing behind that veil | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051341 | of impassiveness. "I don't see what they can have found out away from this house," he said, rousing himself by an effort to answer; "and they don't seem to have been here lately." "Well, we shall see," Kelson said casually. "Ah, here comes Dick back again." Morriston hurried in with a serious face. In answer to Kelson's, "Well, Dick?" he | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051342 | said. "It appears a rather extraordinary piece of evidence has just come to light; one which, if true, completely solves the mystery of the locked door. I asked Freeman if there was any objection to you fellows coming to the library and hearing the story; he is quite agreeable. So will you come? You too, Edith, and Miss Tredworth; there | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051343 | is nothing at all horrible in it so far." For the first time Edith Morriston turned from the window. "Is it necessary, Dick?" she protested quietly. "I'd just as soon hear it all afterwards from you. These police visitations are rather getting on my nerves." "Very well, dear; you shall hear all about it later on," her brother responded, and | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051344 | led the way down to the library. Gifford was the last to leave the room, and his glance back showed him that Edith Morriston had turned again to the window and resumed her former attitude. In the library were the chief constable, Gervase Henshaw and a local detective. "Now, Major Freeman," Morriston said as he closed the door, "we shall | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051345 | be glad to hear this new piece of evidence." Major Freeman bowed. "Shortly, it comes to this," he began. "A young woman named Martha Haynes, belonging to Branchester, called at my office this morning and made a statement which, if reliable, must have an important bearing on this mysterious case. "It appears from her story that on the night of | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051346 | the Hunt Ball held here she had been paying a visit to some friends at Rapscot, a village, as you know, about a mile beyond Wynford. On her way back to the town, for which she started at about ., she took as a short cut the right-of-way path running across the park and passing near the house. As she | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051347 | went by she was naturally attracted by the lighted windows and could hear the band quite plainly. She stopped to listen to the music at a point which she has indicated, almost directly opposite the tower. "She says she had stood there for some little time when her attention was suddenly diverted to what seemed a mysterious movement on the | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051348 | outside of the tower. A dark body, presumably a human being, appeared to be slowly sliding down the wall from the topmost window. Unfortunately before she could quite realize what she was looking at--and we may imagine that a country girl would take some little time to grasp so unusual a situation--a cloud drifted across the moon and threw the | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051349 | tower into shadow. "The girl continued, however, to keep her eyes fixed on the spot where she had seen the dark object descending, with the result that in a few seconds she saw it reach and pass over one side of the window of the lower room which was sufficiently lighted up to silhouette anything placed before it. She saw | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051350 | the object move slowly over the window and disappear in the darkness beneath it. When, a few seconds later, the moon came out again nothing more was to be seen. "The girl stayed for some time watching the tower, but without result. She is a more or less ignorant, unsophisticated country-woman, and what she had seen she was quite unable | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051351 | to account for. Naturally she hardly connected it with any sort of tragical occurrence. The house with its lights and music seemed given over to gaiety; that any one should just then have met his death in that upper room never entered her imagination. A vague idea that a thief might have got into the house and she had seen | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051352 | him escape by the tower window did indeed, as she says, cross her mind, and that supposition prevented her from approaching the tower to satisfy her curiosity. But as nothing more happened she began to think less of the significance of what she had seen, in fact almost persuaded herself that it had been something of an optical delusion. Presently, | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051353 | having had enough of standing in the cold wind, she resumed her way, went home and to bed, and early next morning left the town to enter a situation in another part of the country. "It appears that she had taken cold by her loitering and soon after reaching her destination became so ill that she had to keep her | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051354 | bed, and it was only on her recovery a few days ago that she heard what had happened here that night. Directly she could get away she came over and told her story to us." "A pity she could not have come before," Morriston remarked as the chief constable paused. "Her evidence is highly important, disposing as it does of | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051355 | the mystery of the locked door." "Yes," Major Freeman agreed, "and also of the suicide theory. The question now is--who was the person who was seen descending from the window?" "Could this girl tell whether it was a man or a woman?" The question came from Henshaw, who had hitherto kept silent. "She thinks it was a man," Major Freeman | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051356 | answered, "but could not swear to it. The fact of the object being close to the wall made it almost impossible in the imperfect light to distinguish plainly. But I think we may take it that it was a man. The feat could be hardly one a woman would undertake." "No," Gifford agreed. "And there would seem little chance of | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051357 | identifying the person." "None at all so far as the girl Haynes is concerned," Major Freeman replied. "But we have something to go upon; a starting point for a new line of inquiry. The person seen escaping must have lowered himself by a rope from that top window and a considerable length would be required. I have taken the liberty, | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051358 | Mr. Morriston, of setting a party of my men to search the grounds for the rope; they will begin by dragging the little lake." "By all means," Morriston assented. "Detective Sprules," the chief proceeded, "would like to make another examination of the ironwork of the window. May he go up now?" "Certainly," Morriston answered, and the detective left the room. | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051359 | Gifford spoke. "The girl saw nothing of the escaping person after he reached the ground?" "Nothing, she says," Major Freeman answered. "But the base of the tower was in deep shadow, which would prevent that." "A pity her curiosity was not a little more practical," Henshaw observed. "Yes." Gifford turned to him. "You are proved correct, Mr. Henshaw, in your | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051360 | repudiation of the suicide idea. Perhaps, in view of this latest development, you may have knowledge to go upon of some one from whom your brother might have apprehended danger?" Henshaw's set face gave indication of nothing but a studied reserve. "No one certainly," he answered coolly, "from whom he might apprehend danger to his life." "There must have been | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051361 | a motive for the act," Kelson observed. "Unless it was a sudden quarrel." "There appears," Major Freeman put in, "to be no evidence whatever of anything leading up to that." "No; the cause is so far quite mysterious," Henshaw said. It seemed to Gifford that there was something of undisclosed knowledge behind his words, and he fell to wondering how | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051362 | far the motive was mysterious to him. Morriston proceeded to acquaint Major Freeman with the discovered cause of the marks on the ladies' dresses, and they all went off to the lower room where the position of the stains was pointed out. Edith Morriston was no longer there. "Miss Tredworth sat at this end of the sofa," Morriston explained, "and | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051363 | so the marks on her dress are clearly accounted for." "And Miss Morriston?" Henshaw put the question in a tone which had in it, Gifford thought, a touch of scepticism. "Oh, my sister must have been in here too," Morriston replied. "Or how could her dress have been stained? Unless, indeed, she brushed against Miss Tredworth's or someone else's. That's | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051364 | clear." There seemed no alacrity in Henshaw to accept the conclusion and he did not respond. "I am glad this part of the mystery is so satisfactorily settled," the chief constable remarked. "Now we have the issue narrowed. Well, Sprules?" The detective had appeared at the door. "I have examined the ironwork of the window, sir," he said, "and have | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051365 | found under the magnifying-glass traces of the fraying of a rope as though caused by friction against the iron staple." "Sufficient signs to bear out the young woman's statement?" "Quite, sir. There is upon close examination distinct evidence of a rope having been worked against the hinge of the window." "Very good, Sprules. We may consider that point settled," Major | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051366 | Freeman said. Having finally satisfied themselves as to the cause of the stains on the floor and sofa, the chief constable and his subordinate proposed to go to the lake and see whether the men who were dragging it had had any success. Morriston and Henshaw with Kelson and Gifford accompanied them. As they came in sight of the boat | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051367 | the detective exclaimed, "They have found it!" and the men were seen hauling up a rope out of the water. "Sooner than I expected," Major Freeman observed as they hurried towards the nearest point to the boat. The rope when landed proved to be of considerable length, sufficient when doubled, they calculated, to reach from the topmost window to within | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051368 | five or six feet of the ground. "The escaping person," Henshaw said, "must have slid down the doubled rope which had been passed through the staple of the window, and then when the ground was reached have pulled it away, coiled it up, carried it to the lake, and thrown it in. Obviously that was the procedure and it accounts | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051369 | completely for the locked door." The chief constable and the detective agreed. "A man would want some nerve to come down from that height," the latter remarked. "Any man, or woman either for that matter," Henshaw returned dogmatically, "would not hesitate to take the risk as an alternative to being trapped up there with his victim." "You are not suggesting | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051370 | it might have been a woman who was seen sliding down the rope?" Gifford asked pointedly. Henshaw shrugged. "I suggest nothing as to the person's identity," he replied in a sharply guarded tone. "That is now what remains to be discovered." THE LOST BROOCH The police authorities with Henshaw and Morriston went off with the rope to experiment in the | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051371 | room of the tragedy. "I don't suppose we are wanted," Kelson said quietly to Gifford; "let's go for a turn round the garden. I wonder where Muriel has got to." They found Miss Tredworth on the lawn. "I am waiting for Edith," she said. "We'll stroll on and Gifford can bring Miss Morriston after us," Kelson suggested, and the lovers | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051372 | moved away, leaving Gifford, much to his satisfaction, waiting for Edith Morriston. In a few minutes she made her appearance. Gifford mentioned the arrangement and they strolled off by the path the others had taken. It seemed to Gifford that his companion's manner was rather abnormal; unlike her usual cold reserve there were signs of a certain suppressed excitement. "I | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051373 | hope," she said, "that Major Freeman and his people are satisfied with our discovery that the marks on Muriel's dress and mine came there by accident." "Evidently quite convinced," Gifford answered. "That's well," she responded with a rather forced laugh. "It was rather too bad to suspect us, on that evidence, of knowing anything about the affair." "I don't suppose | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051374 | for a moment they did," Gifford assured her. "I don't know," the girl returned. "Anyhow it was rather an embarrassing, not to say painful, position for us to be in. But that is at an end now." Nevertheless Gifford could tell that she was not so thoroughly relieved as her words implied. "Completely," he declared. "You have heard of the | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051375 | new piece of evidence?" he added casually. For a moment she stopped with a start, instantly recovering herself. "No; what is that?" in a tone almost of unconcern. Gifford told her of the statement made by the country girl and its corroboration in the finding of the rope. As he continued he felt sure that the story was gripping his | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051376 | companion more and more closely. At last she stopped dead and turned to him with eyes which had in them intense mystification as well as fear. "Mr. Gifford, do you believe that story?" "I see no reason for disbelieving it," he answered quietly. "It is practically the only conceivable solution of the mystery of the locked door." "Surely--" she stopped, | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051377 | checking the vehement objection that rose to her lips. "This girl," she went on as though searching for a plausible argument, "is it not likely that she was mistaken? We know what these country people are. And she could not have seen very clearly." "But," Gifford argued gently, "her statement is confirmed by the finding of the rope." Edith Morriston | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051378 | was thinking strenuously, desperately, he could see that. The words she spoke were but mechanical, the mere froth of a seething brain. Yet her splendid self-command--and he recognized it with admiration--never deserted her, however supreme the struggle may have been to retain it. A seat was by them; she went across the path to it and sat down. Gifford saw | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051379 | that she was deadly pale. "I fear this wretched business is upsetting you, Miss Morriston," he said gently. "Let me run to the house and fetch something to revive you." She made a gesture to stay him, and by an effort seemed to shake off the threatening collapse. "No, no," she said; "please don't. It is very stupid of me, | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051380 | but these repeated shocks are rather trying. You see one has never had any experience of the sort before." "It was more than stupid of me to blunder into the story," Gifford said self-reproachfully. "But it never occurred to me--" "No, no; of course not," she responded. "And, after all, I am bound to hear all about it sooner or | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051381 | later. Sit down and tell me your opinion of the affair. Supposing the girl was not mistaken who do you think the person seen escaping from the window could have been?" "That is difficult to say." "A thief, no doubt." "That is a natural conclusion." "Have the police any idea?" "Not that I know of. I should say decidedly no | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051382 | definite idea." "Or Mr. Henshaw?" "Whatever Mr. Henshaw's ideas may be he keeps them to himself." Miss Morriston checked the remark she had seemed about to make, and for a few minutes there was an awkward silence. Gifford broke it. "I am so sorry that I have been unable to get any hint of his intentions. Believe me, it has | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051383 | not been for want of trying. But the man, for reasons best known to himself, seems determined to remain inscrutable." The girl was staring in front of her. "Yes," she responded, with a catch of her breath; "that is evident. But it does not much matter. I know you have tried your best to do what I was foolish enough | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051384 | to ask you. And now please do not think any more of it. In my ignorance of the man's character I set you an impossible task. All I can do now is to thank you for your sympathy and devotion." Her tone pained him horribly. "I hope, Miss Morriston," he replied warmly, "you are not asking me to end my | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051385 | devotion." She gave a little bitter laugh. "Seeing that it is useless I have no right to ask its continuance," she replied almost coldly, "nor to expect you to involve yourself in my--in our worries." "But if I ask to be allowed that privilege?" he urged. She shook her head. "No, no, my friend," she insisted, with less warmth than | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051386 | the words implied, "it can lead to no good and would be a mistake. Let the man alone. To involve yourself with him can bring you nothing but trouble. Promise me you will take no further heed of this unhappy business." She turned to him as she spoke the last words, and there seemed less trouble in her face than | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051387 | in his. For at his heart there was a sickening fear and suspicion of what the words portended. "I can't promise that," he objected. "But I ask you; it is my wish," she returned with a touch of command. "For my sake, or yours?" he rejoined. "For both. Give me your promise. You must if we are to remain friends." | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051388 | Her look and the fascination in her voice seemed to pull the very heart out of him. "You are asking a cruelly hard thing of me," he replied, with a tremor in his voice. "I don't understand--" "No, you don't understand," she interrupted quickly. "It is enough to know that you have taken a girl's foolish commission too seriously, so | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051389 | seriously as to run the risk of making things even worse than they threatened to be. Now I ask you to leave well alone." "If it is well," he said doubtfully. "Of course. Why should it not be?" she rejoined, in a not very convincing tone. "Now I shall rely on you--and I am sure it will not be in | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051390 | vain--to respect my wishes. Things seem to be in a horrible muddle," she added with a rather dreary laugh, "but let's hope they will right themselves before long." She rose, compelling him to rise too. Something in the tone and manner of her last speech made him quite unwilling to end their conference, and desperately anxious to speak out everything | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051391 | that was in his mind and try to bring matters to a crisis. "Don't go for a moment," he said as she began to move away towards the house. "I have something to say to you." She turned quickly and faced him with a suggestion of displeasure in her eyes. "What is it?" she said with a touch of impatience. | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051392 | "Only this," he answered quietly. "Have you lost a brooch, Miss Morriston?" At the question the blood left her cheeks as it had done a little while before; then surged back till her face was suffused. "A brooch? Yes; I have missed one. Have you found it?" The words were spoken with a calmness which failed to hide the eagerness | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051393 | behind them. "I think so," he answered, taking out his letter-case. "A pearl, set in diamonds mounted on a safety-pin?" He opened the case and showed it pinned into the soft lining. "Yes; that is mine," she said; and for a moment or two by a strange attraction each looked into the other's eyes. Gifford bent his head over the | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051394 | case as he unfastened the brooch and took it out. "Where--where did you find it?" Something in the girl's voice made him glad that he was not looking at her. "In the garden," he said. "In the garden?" she repeated. He was looking up now and saw the intense relief in her face. "To-day?" "No; last time I was up | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051395 | here. I ought to have taken it to the house at once but--but it was a temptation to me to keep it till I could give it back to you like this. Do forgive me." It was plain she divined what he meant, but her cold manner came to the aid of her embarrassment. "I am only too glad to | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051396 | have it again. I am so glad you found it." "So am I," he responded with a touch of fervour. "I wish I could relieve your mind of everything else as easily." "I am sure you do," she said wistfully, and impulsively half put out her hand. He caught it as she was in the act of checking the action | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051397 | and drawing it back. "You may be sure--quite sure, of my devotion," he said, and raised her hand to his lips. An exclamation and a sudden start as the hand was quickly withdrawn made him look up. Edith Morriston's eyes were fixed with something like fear on an object behind him. An intuition told him what it was before he | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051398 | looked round to see Henshaw, with his characteristic, rather stealthy walk, coming towards them. Gifford set his teeth hard as the two faced round and awaited Henshaw's approach. "This man shall not annoy you," he said in an undertone. "Don't quarrel with him, for heaven's sake," she entreated in the same tone, under her breath, as the disturbing presence drew | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051399 | near. There was a strange excitement in her voice, though none in the set face. "I think your brother is looking for you, Miss Morriston," Henshaw said in his even voice when he was within a dozen paces of them. "I was just going to look for him," the girl replied in a voice strangely changed from that in which | 60 | gutenberg |
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