The Astonishing Adventure of Jane SmithWentworth, Patricia
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The Astonishing Adventure of Jane Smith
Wentworth, Patricia
Adventure stories; Cousins -- Fiction; Detective and mystery stories
“Tony, I don’t know what you’re thinking of. I don’t know how you can
speak to me like this. I don’t know what you mean—I don’t indeed. Since
you went I have only been into the passages twice, last night and
to-night. I went there because—oh, why do people go and weep upon a
grave? I had no grave to go to, but I thought that, if I came here where
we used to meet, perhaps the you that was haunting me would take shape
so that I could see it, or else leave me. I felt driven, and I didn’t
know what was driving me.”
In the breathless silence that followed she heard him say:
“I _know_ that you told Ember”—and quite suddenly all the strength went
out of her.
CHAPTER XVIII
When Jane turned, and ran back down the dark passage, she had just the
one thought—to get away out of earshot. That she, or any one but Anthony
Luttrell, should have heard that breaking tone in Raymond’s voice
shocked her profoundly. She felt guilty of having intruded upon the
innermost sacred places of another woman’s life. It shocked and moved
her very deeply. Tears blinded her, and she ran into the dark without a
thought for herself. It was only when, looking back, she could not see
even a glimmer of outside twilight that she halted and began to think
what she must do.
The practical was never very long in abeyance with Jane. She began to
plan rapidly, even whilst she dried her eyes. She would feel her way to
the foot of the stairs. If she kept touching the left-hand wall, there
would be very little risk of losing her way. Only one passage had led
off in that direction and that one diverged at right angles, so that she
would not run the risk of going down it unawares. When she came to the
foot of the stairs, she would turn back again and wait in the first
cross-passage until Raymond passed. Then she would follow her up the
steps and watch to see how the door opened on this side.
Jane was very much pleased with her plan when she had made it. It made
her feel very intelligent and efficient. She began to put it into
practice at once, walking quite quickly with her right hand feeling in
front of her and the left just brushing the wall. Of course the stone
was horrid to touch—cold, damp, slimy. She was sure the slime was green.
Once she jabbed her finger on a rock splinter, and once she touched
something soft which squirmed. The dark seemed to get darker and darker,
and the silence was like a weight that she could hardly carry.
Her little glow of self-satisfaction died down and left her coldly
afraid. Then, quite suddenly, she came to the cross-passage. Her fingers
slid from the stone into black air, groped, stretched out, and
touched—something—warm, alive.
Jane’s gasping scream went echoing down the dark. A hand came up and
caught her wrist, another fell upon her right shoulder.
“Jane, for the Lord’s sake, hush!” said Henry’s voice.
Jane caught her breath as if she were going to scream again.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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