For answer, Geoffrey burst into a torrent of blasphemy which made her shudder. He cursed Delandre and his sister and all their kind, and in especial he hurled curse after curse on her golden hair.
“Oh, hush! hush!” she said, and was then silent, for she feared her husband when she saw the evil effect of his humour. Geoffrey in the torrent of his anger stood up and moved away from the hearth; but suddenly stopped as he saw a new look of terror in his wife’s eyes. He followed their glance, and then he too, shuddered—for there on the broken hearth-stone lay a golden streak as the point of the hair rose though the crack.
“Look, look!” she shrieked. “Is it some ghost of the dead! Come away—come away!” and seizing her husband by the wrist with the frenzy of madness, she pulled him from the room.
That night she was in a raging fever. The doctor of the district attended her at once, and special aid was telegraphed for to London. Geoffrey was in despair, and in his anguish at the danger of his young wife almost forgot his own crime and its consequences. In the evening the doctor had to leave to attend to others; but he left Geoffrey in charge of his wife. His last words were:
“Remember, you must humour her till I come in the morning, or till some other doctor has her case in hand. What you have to dread is another attack of emotion. See that she is kept warm. Nothing more can be done.”
Late in the evening, when the rest of the household had retired, Geoffrey’s wife got up from her bed and called to her husband.
“Come!” she said. “Come to the old hall! I know where the gold comes from! I want to see it grow!”
Geoffrey would fain have stopped her, but he feared for her life or reason on the one hand, and lest in a paroxysm she should shriek out her terrible suspicion, and seeing that it was useless to try to prevent her, wrapped a warm rug around her and went with her to the old hall. When they entered, she turned and shut the door and locked it.
“We want no strangers amongst us three tonight!” she whispered with a wan smile.
“We three! nay we are but two,” said Geoffrey with a shudder; he feared to say more.