“It has been told to me,” mysteriously returned Janet. “Margery saw it last night, for one.”
“Margery sees double, sometimes. Do not go, Janet.”
Janet’s only answer was to put the hood of her cloak over her head, and walk away. Bessy Godolphin ran up at this juncture.
“Is Janet going to the ash-trees? She’ll turn into a ghost herself some time, believing all the rubbish Margery chooses to dream. I shall go and tell her so.”
Bessy followed in the wake of her sister. George turned to Miss Hastings.
“Have you a cloak also, Maria? Draw it round you, then, and let us go after them.”
He caught her to him with a fond gesture, and they hastened on, down from the eminence where rose the Folly, to the lower ground nearer Ashlydyat. The Dark Plain lay to the right, and as they struck into a narrow, overhung walk, its gloom contrasted unpleasantly with the late brightness. Maria Hastings drew nearer to her companion with an involuntary shiver.
“Why did you come this dark way, George?”
“It is the most direct way. In the dark or in the light you are safe with me. Did you notice Sir George’s joke about Charlotte Pain?”
The question caused her heart to beat wildly. “Was it a joke?” she breathed.