"How silly you are! I wish I had not mentioned the jewels to you!"
"Do you think Uncle Jasper would let me have a peep at his treasures?" Eric questioned.
"You had better ask him," Celia replied. She leaned her flushed face out of the window. "Oh, how hot it is!" she exclaimed; "and see how dark the sky is growing! What inky clouds! Oh, I fear the storm is coming! Hark, surely that is thunder?"
It was, in the distance, but it was drawing nearer and nearer every minute. At length the rain began to fall in slow, heavy drops.
"Mother will be sure to remain at Home Vale," Joy said. "What is the time, Eric?" The boy drew out his watch—a treasured possession, for it had been his father's—and looked at it.
"Nearly five o'clock," he replied. "Why, I declare it's getting dark! There, wasn't that a brilliant flash of lightning! Now for the thunder."
It came, a tremendous clap, just as the door opened and Sir Jasper entered. The children were surprised to see him, for he had never visited them in the east wing before. Eric sprang up from the arm chair in which he had been reclining much at his ease, and offered it to the old man, who sank into it rather breathlessly.
"We are going to have a terrible storm," Sir Jasper said; "indeed, it has come," he continued as another flash of lightning almost blinded them for a moment, and the thunder rolled overhead. "Your mother is at Home Vale, and will doubtless remain till the weather clears. You are not afraid of a storm?" he questioned.
They all assured him they were not; but Celia, whose colour had paled, left the window for a seat further back in the room. The rain was descending in torrents now from the leaden sky; the lightning was almost incessant; and the thunder sounded like the roar of artillery. It was indeed a fearful storm, the like of which the children had never witnessed before. Joy sat quietly on the sofa, her eyes fixed on Sir Jasper's withered visage; and presently Celia crept to her side and grasped her hand tightly.
"Joy, isn't it awful?" she whispered, hoarsely.