English fiction -- 19th century; Inheritance and succession -- Fiction; Mystery fiction; Smugglers -- Fiction
Darkening the shining moonlight at the entrance came a woman's figure,
entering far more stealthily and softly than Mr. North had entered.
She stole along amid the pillars, and then stopped suddenly, as though
intent on listening. She was not quite beyond the vision of Mr. North:
his eyes were accustomed to the darkness, and the rays at the open
door threw a semi-light beyond: and he saw her push back her hood and
bend her ear to listen. Quite two minutes passed thus they seemed like
five to George North, he standing still and motionless as the grave.
Then she turned, retraced her steps, and went out again. Mr. North
stole to the door in her wake, and looked after her.
Yes, he thought so! It was Jane Hallet. She had gone to the edge now,
and was gazing straight out to seaward, her hands raised over her eyes
to steady their sight. Mr. North knew her only by the outline of her
figure, for the hood of her cloak was well on; but he could not be
mistaken. Being about himself of an evening, he had seen her about;
had seen her more than once come to these ruins and stand as she was
standing now: once only before had she entered the Keep. The precise
purport of these manoeuvres he could not fathom, but felt sure that
she was tracking, and yet hiding herself from, Harry Castlemaine.
Another minute, and then she turned.
"Not to-night," Mr. North heard her say aloud to herself as she passed
the door of the Keep. And she went through the gate and walked rapidly
away towards Greylands.
Mr. North took out his watch to see the time, holding it to the
moonlight. Half-past nine. Not too late, he decided, to go to
Greylands' Rest and pay a short visit to Madame Guise. The family were
out that evening, dining at Stilborough--which information he had
picked up from Mrs. Bent: had they been at home, he would not have
thought of presenting himself so late. It might be a good opportunity
to get a few minutes alone with his sister-in-law, and he wanted to
tell her that he had heard from Gap.
Crossing the road, he went striding quickly up the lane, and was
nearly run over by Commodore Teague's spring cart, which came with a
bolt unexpectedly out of the turning. The Commodore, who was driving,
did not see him: he had his head bent down nearly to the off shaft,
doing something to the harness. The cart clattered on its way, and Mr.
North pursued his.
Turning in at the gate of Greylands' Rest, and passing round to the
broad path, he heard a voice singing; a voice that he knew and loved
too well. Ethel was not gone to the dinner, then! She sat alone at the
piano in the red parlour, its glass doors being thrown wide open,
singing a love ditty to herself in the moonlight. Mr. North, every
pulse of his heart beating with its sense of bliss, drew himself up
against the wall beside the window to listen.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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