In Mr. Knox's CountrySomerville, E. Oe. (Edith Oenone)
General
In Mr. Knox's Country
Somerville, E. Oe. (Edith Oenone)
British -- Ireland -- Fiction; Ireland -- Social life and customs -- Fiction; Judges -- Fiction
"No, to the right--towards the tower." She went to the window. "There
was some one with him," she added quickly. "There he is now--that man
in a yachting cap, by the tower----"
"I don't see anyone," I said, refixing my eye-glass.
Miss Fraser continued to stare out of the window. "You're
short-sighted," she said, without looking at me. "Perhaps if the
window were open----"
Before I could help her she had opened it, and the west wind rushed in,
with big drops in it.
"I must be blind," I said, "I can see no one."
"Nor can I--now," she said, drawing back from the window.
She sat down at the table as if her knees had given way, and her strong
white hand fell slackly on Philippa's purchase, the old aneroid
barometer, and rested there. The other girl looked at her anxiously.
"Hold up, Cathie!" she said, as one speaks to a horse when it stumbles.
Her friend's eyes were fixed, and empty of expression, and the fresh
pervading pink of her face had paled.
"Perhaps we had better go and look for that kid," said Andrew, getting
up, and I knew that he too was aware of something uncomfortable in the
atmosphere. Before we could get out of the room, Dr. "Cathie" spoke.
"I see tram-lines," she said gropingly, "and water--I wonder if he's
asleep----"
She sighed. Andrew and I, standing aghast, saw her colour begin to
return.
Her friend's eye indicated to us the door. We closed it behind us, and
shoved our way through the hall.
"I say!" said Andrew, as we got outside, "I thought she was going to
chuck a fit, or have hysterics, or something. Didn't you?"
I did not answer. Cantillon, the sweep, was hurrying towards me with
tidings in his face.
"Mrs. Yeates is after going to the cliff looking for the young
gentleman--but sure what I was saying----"
I did not wait to hear what Cantillon's observations had been, because
I had caught sight of Philippa, away in a field near the edge of the
cliffs. She was running, and the boy with the white flannel jacket was
in front of her. It seemed ridiculous to hurry, when I knew that
Anthony had been accompanied by a large man in a yachting cap (in
itself a guarantee of competency).
None the less, I ran, with the wind and the heavy raindrops in my face,
across country, not round by the road, and ran the faster for seeing my
wife and her companion sinking out of sight over the edge of the cliff,
as by an oblique path. My way took me past the tower; there was a
little plateau there, with a drooping wire fence round it, and I had a
glimpse of the square black mouth of the disused shaft.
"Near the tower," the girl had said; but she had also said there was a
man with him.
I ran on, but fear had sprung out of the shaft and came with me.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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