She quivered with rage and mortification, and for the moment felt disposed to spring up and walk away, but refrained, for she knew that it would then seem as if she had been keeping an appointment with this man, and had been frightened into showing herself by her cousin’s coming.
The situation was horrible, and she knew that all she could do was to wait in the hope that, as soon as Rolph had gone by, Caleb would glide after him.
“What for?” she asked herself; and she turned cold at the answering thought.
He seemed to have no stout bludgeon, though. Perhaps he was only acting the spy; and as soon as Rolph had been to the cottage and returned, Caleb himself might have some intention of going there.
Marjorie’s eyes glittered again as thought after thought came, boding ill to those she hated now with the bitterness of a jealous woman; and all at once, like a flash, a thought flooded her brain which sent the blood thrilling through every artery and vein.
“No,” she thought, and she crouched there, compressing her nether lip between her white teeth. Then,—“Why not? What is she that she should rob me of my happiness, and of all I hold dear? But if—”
She drew in her breath with a faint hiss that was almost inaudible, but it was sufficient to make the poacher pause and look sharply to right and left, as he still crept backwards till he was beneath the shelter of the clump in the hollow which hid Marjorie, and within a few yards of where she was seated.
The sounds of passing steps were very near now. Then there was a faint cough, and Marjorie knew that her cousin was so close that, if he looked about him, he must see her in hiding with this vagabond of the village; and again the girl’s veins tingled with the nervous sensation of anger and mortification.
She would have given ten years of her life to have been back at home; but she had brought all this upon herself, and she could only hope that Rolph would pass them without turning his head.
“Yes, go on,” said a low, harsh voice, hardly above a whisper, and Marjorie started as she found herself an involuntary listener to the man’s outspoken thoughts. “Only wait,” he continued, and he, too, drew in his breath with a low, hissing sound.