The next day--Sunday--the Master of the Castle came in person to the
Miller and asked him to come up about noon and drive Lieutenant Otto's
body down to the steamer. The Miller could not understand and stared at
him; but the Master explained curtly that all his men had the day off
and had gone to church, none of his servants were at home.
The Master could not have slept that night, he looked like a dead man
and was unshaven besides. But he swung his walking-stick in his usual
way and held himself erect.
The Miller put on his best coat and went. When he had put the horses
in, the Master himself lent him a hand in getting the body into the
carriage. It was all done quietly, almost secretly, there was nobody to
look on.
The Miller drove away to the pier. After him came the Chamberlain and
his Lady, besides the Lady of the Castle and Victoria. They were all
on foot. The Master was seen standing alone on the steps and making
repeated gestures of farewell; the wind ruffled his grey hair.
When the body was carried on board the mourners followed. From the
railing the Lady of the Castle called ashore to the Miller that he was
to say good-bye to the Master for her, and Victoria asked him the same.
Then the boat steamed away. The Miller stood a long while watching her.
There was a stiff breeze and the bay was rough; it was a quarter of an
hour before the boat disappeared behind the islands. The Miller drove
home.
He put the horses in the stable, gave them a feed and was going in to
deliver the message he had for the Master. The kitchen door, however,
proved to be locked. He walked round the house and tried to get in
by the front door; that too was locked. It's the dinner hour and the
Master's asleep, he thought. But as he was a punctilious man and wished
to carry out what he had undertaken, he went into the servants' hall to
find somebody to whom he could give his messages. In the servants' hall
there was not a soul. He went out again, looked all about, and even
tried the maids' room. There was nobody there either. The whole place
was deserted.
He was just going out again when he saw the glimmer of a candle in
the Castle cellar. He stopped. Through the little barred windows he
could plainly see a man come into the cellar with a candle in one hand
and a chair upholstered in red silk in the other. It was the Master.
He was shaved and dressed as though for a great occasion. Perhaps I
might knock at the window and give him the Lady's message, thought the
Miller, but stood still.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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