In the meantime, let us go back to the time when Violet had left the lovers alone under the magnolia-tree, with the prospect of a speedy explanation. She entered the house and went hastily up the great winding staircase to Mrs. Yorke’s room.
The upper corridor was quite dark, for the lamps had not been lighted. The house was very still. She could hear distinctly Leonard’s voice in the drawing-room below, reading aloud to Mrs. Rutledge and Hilda—
“‘Sweet is true love, though given in vain—in vain!’”
All the rest of the house was wrapped in profound quiet as Violet turned down the corridor in the direction of Mrs. Yorke’s room. She was thinking to herself that if the sick woman would allow her to take Jessie’s place that night, she would try hard to make Mrs. Yorke like her, and for Leonard’s sake, who knew but that she might be beguiled into a more tender feeling for her future daughter-in-law.
As Violet hastened down the corridor, she saw two dark forms standing in the passage which led to the east chamber. Trembling with terror, she halted to see what they were.
Through the gloomy shadows she was able at last to distinguish that it was a man and a woman—Betty Harwood and Gilbert Warrington. And as Violet paused, trembling and faint, she heard the man say softly:
“Well, kill her, then! After all, it would only be legalized murder.”
CHAPTER XXIV.
A FEARFUL DEED.