Then, as it was late, he made her renew her promise, and went away.
The next morning the package of newspapers was brought to Anne from the station at an early hour as usual. She was in her own room waiting for them. She watched the boy coming along the road, and felt a sudden thrill of anger when he stopped to throw a stone at a bird. To stop with that in his hand! Old Nora brought up the package. Anne took it, and closed the door. Then she sat down to read.
Half an hour later, Gregory Dexter received a telegraphic dispatch from Lancaster. "Come immediately. A. D."
CHAPTER XXXIII.
| "He was first always. Fortune |
| Shone bright in his face. |
| I fought for years; with no effort |
| He conquered the place. |
| We ran; my feet were all bleeding, |
| But he won the race. |
| "My home was still in the shadow; |
| His lay in the sun. |
| I longed in vain; what he asked for, |
| It straightway was done. |
| Once I staked all my heart's treasure; |
| We played—and he won!" |
| —Adelaide Procter. |
When the dispatch came, Dexter had not yet seen the morning papers. He ate his breakfast hastily, and on the way to the station and on the train he read them with surprise and a tumultuous mixture of other feelings, which he did not stop then to analyze. Mrs. Bagshot had been brought forward a second time by the prosecution, and had testified to an extraordinary conversation which had taken place between Mrs. Heathcote and an unknown young girl on the morning after the news of Captain Heathcote's death in the Shenandoah Valley had been received, parts of which (the conversation) she, in an adjoining room, had overheard. He had barely time to grasp the tenor of the evidence (which was voluminous and interrupted by many questions) when the train reached Lancaster, and he found Li in waiting with the red wagon. All Li could tell was that Miss Douglas was "going on a journey." She was "all ready, with her bonnet on."
In the little parlor he found her, walking up and down, as he had walked during the preceding evening. White as her face was, there was a new expression in her eyes—an expression of energy. In some way she had reached a possibility of action, and consequently a relief. When he had entered, with a rapid motion she closed the doors. "Have you read it?" she said.
"You mean the new testimony? Yes; I read it as I came out."
"And you understood, of course, that it was I?"