There was fear in her eyes.
I felt suddenly that the air was very chill.
“That house is unoccupied,” I repeated shortly.
We all walked on in silence. But, through our silence, it certainly seemed to me that there came a sound of some one lamenting in the garden.
A day or two later Fraser said to me:—
“Why is that old house shut up?”
“Who would occupy it?” I said. “Of course, if I could get a tenant—”
“I'll take it,” he rejoined quickly. “You can let me some shooting with it, can't you?”
“But,” I began; and then I stopped. I had an instinct to keep the old Manse empty, but I fought it, merely because it struck me as unreasonable. How seldom are our instincts unreasonable! God—how seldom!