“I’m afraid it’s no good. The clouds are lighter than they were an hour ago; and I shouldn’t expect it to break to-night now.”
Mrs. Brent fanned herself resignedly.
“I’m not altogether sorry. That cure is almost as bad as the disease for me, Mr. Wraxall. A thunderstorm shakes my nerves to pieces always—I don’t know why. I’m not afraid of being struck, or anything of that kind; but the noise of thunder seems to get down somewhere into my subconsciousness and set me all on edge. After a real bad storm I’m hardly normal. I feel I might do anything wild; try to fly downstairs, steal my best friend’s spoons, or something equally idiotic.”
The American looked at her with a faint twinkle in his eye.
“Now that’s curious, Mrs. Brent, that’s very curious indeed. For, you see, thunderstorms take me quite the other way. I like them. I’d sit up all night to watch a good thunderstorm. Give me a chair, and a good wide window, with not too much iron near it, and I’d be content to watch the flashes so long as they like to come.”
He turned to the nearest window as he spoke, and then seemed to study it for a moment or two.
“That kind of window wouldn’t be much use as a stall for the performance. It’s too deep-set. Are the walls of this house really a couple of yards thick, the way they seem to be at the window-sill there?”
“Several feet thick in this part of Friocksheim. This is the old part of the house, you know—some of it dates from the time when the place was a castle, and they had to make walls thick and windows small. And of course that’s quite a recent thing. Here and there about the building you’ll find remnants of a much older Friocksheim. There’s a gateway you must get the Dangerfields to show you. It’s old enough to satisfy you, I should think.”
“I’d like to see it. It would be very interesting to me. And there must be some things worth visiting in the neighbourhood too. Perhaps you could tell me what I ought to go and see.”
“There’s a battered sort of monument on the road to Frogsholme village, about a mile and a half from here. I believe I remember hearing that it had something to do with Runic, whatever that is. And there are one or two other things you might care to look at.”