She sat down by them, silently. They looked out at the damp, dark garden, over which the spacious night was hovering as on the wings of a gigantic bat. And, in the mute melancholy which drifted like a grey twilight between the tall white pillars, all three of them--Doddie singly, but the step-mother and step-son together--felt frightened to death and crushed by the strange thing that was about to befall them.... CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX And, despite their anxiety, the two sought each other all the oftener, feeling themselves now bound by indissoluble bonds. In the afternoon he would steal to her room; and, despite their anxiety, they lost themselves in wild embraces and then remained close together. "It must be nonsense, Léonie," he whispered. "Yes, but then what is it?" she murmured in return. "After all, I heard the moaning and heard the stone whizz through the air." "And then?" "What?" "If it is something ... suppose it is something that we can't explain?" "But I don't believe in it!" "Nor I.... Only...." "What?" "If it's something ... if it's something that we can't explain, then...." "Then what?" "Then ... it's not because of us!" he whispered, almost inaudibly. "Why, Oorip said so herself! It's because of papa!" "Oh, but it's too silly!" "I don't believe in that nonsense either." "The moaning ... of those animals." "And that stone ... must have been thrown by some wretched fellow ... one of the servants, a beggar who is putting himself forward ... or who has been bribed...." "Bribed? By whom?" "By ... by the regent...." "Why, Theo!" "Oorip said the moaning came from the palace...." "What do you mean?" "And that they wanted to torment papa from there...." "To torment him?" "Because the Regent of Ngadjiwa has been dismissed." "Does Oorip say that?" "No, I do. Oorip said that the regent had occult powers. That's nonsense, of course. The fellow's a scoundrel. He has bribed people ... to worry papa." "But papa notices none of it...." "No.... We mustn't tell him either.... That's the best thing to do.... We must ignore it." "And the white hadji, Theo, whom Doddie saw twice.... And, when they do table-turning at Van Helderen's, Ida sees him too...." "Oh, another tool of the regent's, of course!" "Yes, I expect that's true.... But it's wretched all the same, Theo.... Theo darling, I'm so frightened!" "Of that nonsense? Come, come!" "If it's anything, Theo ... it has nothing to do with us, you say?" He laughed: "What next? What could it have to do with us? I tell you, it's a practical joke of the regent's." "We oughtn't to be together any more." "No, no, I love you, I'm mad with love for you!" He kissed her fiercely. They were both afraid. But he rallied Léonie: "Come, Léonie, don't be so superstitious!" "When I was a child, my babu told me...." She whispered a story in his ear. He turned pale: "Léonie, what rot!"