A few minutes later I was on the Hill, for the horse I had chosen was a fast one; and I was just turning into our street when I was passed by Mr. Arthur’s grey mare and cutter. This made me pull up for a minute, for I hadn’t expected this; but on looking ahead and seeing Miss Cumberland peering from our own gateway, I drove quickly on and took her up.
I was not so much astonished as you would think, to be ordered to follow fast after the mare and cutter, and to stop where it stopped. That was all she wanted—to follow that cutter, and to stop where it stopped. Well, it stopped at the club-house; and when she saw it turn in there, I heard her give a little gasp.
“Wait,” she whispered. “Wait till she has had time to get out and go in; then drive in, too, and help me to find my way into the building after her.”
And then I knew it was Miss Carmel we had been following. Before, I thought it was Mr. Arthur.
Presently, she pulled me by the sleeve. “I heard the door shut,” said she—and I was a little frightened at her voice, but I was full of my importance, and went on doing just as she bade me. Driving in after the cutter, I drew up into the shadows where the grey mare was hid, and then, reaching out my hand to Miss Cumberland, I helped her out, and went with her as far as the door. “You may go back now,” said she. “If I survive the night, I shall never forget this service, my good Zadok.” And I saw her lift her hand to the door, then fall back white and trembling in the moonlight. “I can’t,” she whispered, over and over; “I can’t—I can’t.”
“Shall I knock?” I asked.
“No, no,” she whispered back. “I want to go in quietly; let’s see if there’s no other way. Run about the house, Zadok; I will submit to any humiliation; only find me some entrance other than this.” She was shaking so and her face looked so ghastly in the moonlight that I was afraid to leave her; but she made me a gesture of such command that I ran quickly down the steps, and so round the house till I came to a shed over the top of which I saw a window partly open.
Could I get her up on to the shed? I thought I could, and went hurrying back to the big entrance where I had left her. She was still there, shivering with the cold, but just as determined as ever. “Come,” I whispered; “I have found a way.”
She gave me her hand and I led her around to the shed. She was like a snow woman and her touch was ice itself. “Wait till I get a box or board or something,” I said. Hunting about, I found a box leaning against the kitchen side, and, bringing it, I helped her up and soon had her on a level with the window.
As she made her way in, she turned and whispered to me: “Go back now. Carmel has a horse, and will see me home. You have served me well, Zadok.”