Mad: A Story of Dust and AshesFenn, George Manville
General
Mad: A Story of Dust and Ashes
Fenn, George Manville
Fiction
Now pushing back her hair from her forehead, she looked out angrily upon
the night, now drooping and weeping bitterly, her head again sank upon
her hands as the tears of hopeless misery gushed from her eyes. The
moonbeams shed their silvery lustre upon her head as she bent there,
playing amidst the riches of her beautiful hair, caressing it, hiding
and glancing from amidst the thick tresses, lingering there, and seeming
to shed a halo around. But slowly the radiant orb rode on till but half
the bright tresses were in the light, and still slowly the shadows
increased as the rays swept by, flooding first one and then another part
of the room. Soon all within was darkness, while the court was light;
and then slowly the shadow began to climb the houses on the other side,
making their dingy walls less loathsome as seen through the silvery
medium. But before the lower part of the court was quite in darkness, a
heavy, slouching figure might have been seen to creep up to the house on
the opposite side and enter the door. A few minutes after, Lucy Grey
started and listened, for, in the strange stillness of the time, a
rustling was heard upon the stairs, followed by a faint but laboured
breathing; while, though her light was extinguished, Lucy crouched
trembling in her chair, for it seemed to her that she had been watched,
and that even now there was a piercing eye at the keyhole, which fixed
her to her seat so that she dare not move. But at last, from sheer
exhaustion, her fair young head drooped lower and lower towards the
table, sinking upon her shapely arms; when once more came the rumble of
a vehicle in the street, the heavy tread of the policeman upon the
pavement--this time right along the court--in firm, ringing steps, that
gave wrong-doers ample notice of his coming, and then again silence.
They were wild dreams that made fevered the sleep of Lucy Grey. Now it
was Arthur Sterne; now _ma mere_ and her son, or the low, bull-dog face
of Jarker, that disturbed her rest, and she moaned in her sleep again
and again as the night wore on. The writing upon her slate was gone;
the copies were blurred and tear-blistered, and the poor girl slept
heavily and painfully. Now she sighed, now she started, for her heart
was rent and torn--as gentle a heart as ever beat in woman's breast;
but, like a blight, the breath of suspicion had rested on her, and she
had shrunk back scathed before the man for whose coming it had been the
pleasure of her life to watch.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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