Cruel as the graveSouthworth, Emma Dorothy Eliza Nevitte
General
Cruel as the grave
Southworth, Emma Dorothy Eliza Nevitte
American fiction -- 19th century
While the meal was being got ready he kept his party of four well
together in the sitting-room where they waited. And as soon as breakfast
was over, they all reentered the wagon and resumed their journey. They
travelled twenty miles before stopping to dine at a lonely roadside
tavern, where again Purley watched his charge with such vigilance that
she had no opportunity to speak privately either to her husband or their
friend. Still she hoped this opportunity would be afforded when they
should stop for the night. After an hour's rest they went on again,
travelling with moderate haste all the afternoon. They made fifteen more
miles before sunset, and then, having driven forty-five miles that day,
and finding their horses very tired, they determined to put up for the
night at a small hamlet, whose comfortable little hotel promised rest
and refreshment.
Still Purley kept close to his charge. They all had supper in a private
sitting-room. And when that meal was over and the hour for retirement
arrived, Purley himself accompanied Mr. and Mrs. Berners to their
bedroom to see that it was secure. It was a front chamber, on the upper
floor, with two front windows overlooking the village street, and but
one door, which opened upon the passage.
"That is all safe," said Purley, casting a glance around. "So I may
leave you two alone here together, where no doubt, you are glad enough
to be. But I'm sorry to say I must turn the key on you; not that I have
any right to lock you up, sir, without your consent; but of course you
_will_ consent to that, for the sake of staying with your wife."
"Of course I will; and thank you for the privilege," answered Mr.
Berners.
"All right then. Good-night to you both," said Purley, closing and
locking the door, and withdrawing the key.
And then he took a farther precaution for the security of his charge, by
ordering a mattress to be brought and laid down before that chamber
door. And there he and his companion stretched themselves to rest like a
pair of watch dogs.
As soon as Sybil found herself alone with her husband, she beckoned him
to that end of the room which was farthest from the door, and when he
was close beside her she whispered in the lowest tone:
"Did you observe anything peculiar in the manner of that younger
bailiff?"
"I observed that he tried to attract my particular attention whenever we
happened to be unnoticed for a moment. But as we were so very closely
watched I had no opportunity of asking, or he of telling, what he
meant," said Lyon Berners.
"Then I will tell you all about it. When Mr. Purley went away with you,
and left that young man guarding me, the first thing he did was to make
himself known to me, and to place himself at my service even to the
death!"
"Who was he?"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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