"What do you suppose is the matter?" I asked at length.
"Something has detained him," Peaches replied. "Have patience. He can't be long now!"
Another period of silence went by, punctuated only by the hoot of a night boat going up the river like some great golden water beetle, and the occasional rustle of the budding branches overhead as a cool breeze sprang up and sent little clouds flecking across the wide face of the moon. Then came the sound of a step upon the gravel.
"There he is!" whispered Alicia, seizing me by the arm. Her hand was hot and trembling.
But the sound was not repeated, and no one approached, though we waited with straining ears.
"It's past the time now," said Peaches at length.
"Oh, Peaches—let us return!" I besought her. "I don't believe he's coming. Besides, I'm getting so tired!"
"Nonsense! Of course he'll come!" she said. But now there was a note of defiant doubt in her voice. "Wait—you must wait. There's a bench somewhere."
Fumbling about presently she found it, and together we sat down and again waited in a silence that seemed as if it would never end. The wind was growing more brisk and the clouds were thickening, hurrying across the irregular roof of the house like frightened sheep over a wigwag fence, and herding together in a rapidly growing mass beyond. There was a storm brewing; I could feel it in my bones. At length, when more than an hour had passed I could bear it no longer.
"Do you intend to wait all night for that—that servant?" I at length demanded in a fierce undertone.