He had turned on his heel to withdraw, when he was made aware that some one else was coming on the scene. He glanced towards the door, and then with a bow of silent apology drew the curtains across again as he had found them. This done, he turned round and stood facing whoever might come in.
He had expected Despencer, and he was right. But Despencer had not come alone. He had had another object in view all this time, and what that object was was now revealed. Having arranged for what promised to be a stormy scene between Hammond and the Marquis of Severn, having fired his train and calculated the time required for it to reach the mine, he had now brought the marchioness to witness the explosion.
The marchioness entered quickly, her face alight with suspicion. Despencer had skilfully aroused her expectations, without committing himself to any definite statement. Her eye instantly fell on the curtain, and she divined that it concealed a mystery.
“Why is that curtain closed?” she demanded, advancing towards it. “Is there any one in the window?”
There was just one instant in which Hammond hesitated, nearly carried away by the temptation to let her draw back the curtain and overwhelm those two by whom he deemed that he had been deceived. Then, just as the horrified Gerald was about to step forward, Hammond planted himself right in front of the marchioness.
“No!” he said, firmly. “There is no one there.”
She stopped unwillingly and looked at him. He looked at her, and to that look she yielded.
A moment afterwards he was leading her out of the gallery on his arm, while Captain Mauleverer escorted Despencer in the rear.
SCENE XIII
THE MARCHIONESS AT BAY
“Has anything happened?”