At the first sound of Mr. Cornthwaite’s voice, Meg’s rage seemed suddenly to disappear, to give place to a fit of strange gloom, quite as wild, and still more terrible to see. Releasing Bram, who ran past her, she leaned over the banisters, and looked straight into Mr. Cornthwaite’s haggard face.
“What has she done? What have I done?” said she in a horrible whisper. “Why, I’ve done the best night’s work that’s ever been done on this earth, that’s what I’ve done. I’ve sent the man and the woman I hated both to——. Ha! ha! ha!”
With a shrieking laugh she leapt past him to the bottom of the stairs.
CHAPTER XXV. MEG.
Bram Elshaw heard Meg’s wild words as he rushed along the corridor towards the room out of which she had just come—Claire’s room, as he guessed, with a sob of terror rising in his throat.
The door was open. On the floor, just inside, lay what Bram at first thought to be Claire’s lifeless body. Meg had dragged her off the bed, and flung her down in an ecstasy of mad rage.
But even as he raised her in his arms, before the frightened Joan had run up to his aid, Bram was reassured. The girl was unconscious, but she was still breathing. Joan wanted to send him away.
“Leave her to me, sir, leave her to me. You can goa and fetch t’ doctor back,” cried she, as she tried jealously to take Claire out of his arms.