And, affecting to take no further notice of Chris, he shook hands with Mrs. Abercarne, bade her good-night, and left the room with a curious look of sullen determination on his face, which frightened the younger lady so much that she was silent for some minutes.
At last she said, in a frightened whisper:
“Mother, what do you think he’s going to do? I never saw him look like that before.”
But she got no sympathy. Mrs. Abercarne was entirely on John Bradfield’s side, and expressed her opinion that whatever he did would be the proper thing to do. But, on the promise of Chris to cease all correspondence at once with Mr. Richard, a truce was patched up between mother and daughter, and the subject of contention was allowed to drop.
Poor Chris, however, felt that she could not so suddenly break off all communication with the unhappy Dick without one word of explanation. So she contrived to meet Stelfox that very night before she retired to her room, and without hiding the fact that she had been exchanging communications with his charge, begged him to tell Mr. Richard that she had been obliged to promise to do so no longer.
Stelfox, as usual, showed no surprise. He said he would deliver her message, and that was all.
It is not to be wondered at that, after such an exciting evening, Chris was unable to sleep. She now occupied a little bed in the same room with her mother’s large one; and presently, finding her own sad thoughts intolerable, she got up and very quietly crossed the corridor to the Chinese-room in search of a book.
Just as she reached the door, a noise, which seemed to come from the east wing at the opposite end of the house, caused her to turn her head quickly. There was no light in the corridor, so that she could see nothing. Her first idea was that burglars had got into the house, and she was on the point of running back to rouse her mother, and give the alarm, when she heard the unlocking of a door. It then flashed into her mind that it was, perhaps, Stelfox coming out of the east wing that had attracted her attention. Being determined to find out which of these two surmises was correct, and not wishing to alarm the household without cause, she went to the end of the corridor, without, however, venturing too near the spot whence the noise came. Chris was not particularly courageous, and the fear of meeting a real live burglar, caused her to tremble from head to foot. The noise went on all the time, until she reached the railing which surrounded the well of the staircase, and from here she could see a dark mass, which might have been anything, but which must, she supposed, be a human being, disappearing out of her sight from the bottom of the staircase into the hall. That was all she could see; and as she still leaned over the railing, the last sound died away, without her being able to tell whether the figure she had seen had left the house or not.
For a few moments she was absolutely paralysed with terror, and remained quite still in the cold, not daring to move, or to cry out, afraid even to turn round, lest she should find the hand of a burglar laid upon her mouth. At last, however, as she heard nothing more, she began slowly to recover her wits, and to wonder what it was she had seen, what she should do, and whether she was not making a great fuss about nothing.