“Hush, dear,” said Alberta, “or Paula will have her Constable arrest you and lock you up in the gate-house.”
“He may appear later on, of course,” the American girl suggested, not very hopefully. “You can trust me, though, to—”
“Later? Later?” Crofts grumbled. “Are we going to be kept up all night?”
But now Paula Lebetwood ignored him. “Please follow me,” she said, brushing past, and Crofts gave way.
Like creatures under a spell we moved into the Hall, a place still obscured from the moon and illumined now only by the pale ring of lights from the chandelier by the gallery. I offered to switch on the other chandelier, which hung near the chimney-piece, but she said she wished it to remain dark for the present. While she spoke, she lit the one bright globe beneath which Mrs. Belvoir had sat, and took her own place beneath it.
“Please interrupt me as little as possible,” she requested, “especially in this early part where I know my way. I’ll try not to waste time, though I don’t expect this to be a really short meeting. No, don’t say anything, yet.”
It was hard to repress some exclamation of wonder when I saw the two women who sat in semi-darkness near the great expanse of the chimney-piece. Very quiet they had been, and took no notice of us while we entered. They seemed to be absorbed in the embers of the fire, from which only an occasional blue flame winked like an eye. One of them, the squatter of the two, seemed particularly aloof, and only her flattish nose and broad forehead peeped beyond the queer old-fashioned hood still drawn over her head. The other, who wore an expansive coverchief, was taller and more stalwart, with a strong face, large chin, and eyes which shone even in the gloom. She appeared from time to time to take some interest in us and our proceedings. But on the whole the presence of these foreign sisters was eerie and evasive.
More stolid than either of these appeared the bovine Constable who sat near them and seemed to have them in charge.
“Geewhilikins!” emitted Bob, and the state of Lib could be imagined from the fact that she brazenly allowed him to clutch her hand and keep it.
Paula Lebetwood indicated the sisters Delambre with a gesture. “These—gentlewomen: you know who they are, of course. Before to-night is over we shall all be grateful to them for coming here. But it’s late, I know, and you are all anxious to hear my—revelation; so I’ll commence at once.”