She turned away from him as she concluded, and commenced to toil up the steep acclivity that led to the gate. But Jack Portland sprang after her.
‘I am not going to let you go alone,’ he said. ‘Come, Nora, let us part better friends than this. Forgive me for being a little amused at the idea of you and old Ilfracombe having a quiet “spoon” together, and trust me that he shall never trace any annoyance that may accrue from your former little follies to my door.’
The countess did not appear to make any answer to this harangue, and Nell watched them ascend the hill together and pass out of the white gate.
‘And how long is Jack Portland to be trusted?’ she thought, as they disappeared. ‘Just as long as it suits him, and then he will hold his unmanly threats over that poor woman’s head again. Well, I’ve no particular reason to love her, heaven knows, but I can do her this kindness in return for hers, and I will, if only to keep his name unstained by the tongue of such a scoundrel as Jack Portland. They have gone to the Hall, and he will probably not be back for another hour. Now’s the time? If I wait till daylight mother will be about, and liable to break in upon me at any moment. I will slip down at once.’
She lighted a taper, and, shading it with her hand, crept softly down the stairs that led to the bricked passage, and so into the lodgers’ rooms. That occupied by Mr Portland lay to the left. The door was ajar. Nell had only to push it gently open in order to enter. She set her light down on a table and glanced around her. All was in perfect order, except the much-talked-of dispatch-box, which had been left open with its contents tumbled over. Nell did not believe that the packet of letters was not there. It was very unlikely that Jack Portland would not know what was in his box, or what was not. He had intended to hand it to the countess, but changed his mind at the last moment. She looked carefully through the contents of the box, but found no packet. She had replaced the papers carefully, and was about to search the remainder of the apartment, when, to her horror, she heard a footstep enter the narrow passage that divided the two rooms and approach the one which she occupied. It was useless to extinguish her light. The newcomer had already perceived her.
‘Halloa!’ he exclaimed, ‘and what pretty burglar have I here?’
She turned to confront him, and his tone changed to one of terror.
‘My God, Nell!’ he cried, ‘are you dead or living?’
She stood face to face with Jack Portland.