Mildred Arkell: A Novel. Vol. 3 (of 3)Wood, Henry, Mrs.
General
Mildred Arkell: A Novel. Vol. 3 (of 3)
Wood, Henry, Mrs.
Fiction
How he watched, day after day, none save himself saw or knew. He was
training for an admirable detective in plain clothes. He suspected there
had been some coolness between Henry and Miss Beauclerc, and that she
was labouring to dispel it; he knew that Arkell did not go to the
deanery so much as formerly, and he heard Miss Beauclerc reproach him
for it. Lewis had given half his life for such a reproach from her lips
to be addressed to him.
There were so many things for which he hated Henry Arkell! There was his
great progress in his studies, there was the brilliant examination he
had undergone, and there was the gold medal. Could Lewis have
conveniently got at that medal, it had soon been melted down. He had
also taken up an angry feeling to Arkell on account of the doings of
that past November night--the locking up in the church of St. James the
Less. Lewis had grown to nourish a very strange notion in regard to it.
After puzzling his brain to torment, as to how Arkell _could_ have got
out, and finding no solution, he arrived at length at the conclusion
that he had never been in. He must have left the church previously,
Lewis believed, and he had locked up an empty church. It is true he had
thought he heard the organ going, but he fully supposed now that he
heard it only in fancy. Arkell's silence on the point contributed to
this idea: it was entirely beyond Lewis's creed to suppose a fellow
could have such a trick played him and not complain of it. Arkell had
never given forth token of cognisance from that hour to this, and Lewis
assumed he had not been in.
It very much augmented his ill feeling, especially when he remembered
his own night of horrible anticipation. Mr. Lewis had come to the final
conclusion that Arkell had been "out on the spree;" and but for a vague
fear that his own share in the night's events might be dragged to light,
he would certainly have contrived that it should reach the ears of Mr.
Wilberforce. He and his brother were to be for another half year
boarders at the master's house. Cookesley acted there as senior; the
senior boy, Prattleton, living at home.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account