"Difficult! It is a new thing for a Benham to have a door slammed in his face. Confound it. This is sheer nonsense. You must come to Rush Heath. Every one is being sent inland. These devils of French——"
He saw her arm come out. The hook of the lattice grated. She was closing the window.
"Nance——"
The lattice clattered to, and he was left to his own emotions.
Jasper's astonishment struck tragic attitudes. These people had been kind to him that night when he had been shot in the arm. What had made them change toward him? What had old Durrell told the girl that she should treat him so unreasonably?
Parson Goffin's accusation recurred to him.
"Impossible. The parson's a gossiping toper!"
Jasper stared up at the closed window, frowning and trying to put these detestable thoughts away.
"Either some one has been telling lies, or——"
He stood stiffly alert, like a sentinel who has heard a suspicious sound in the darkness. Some one was moving below the terrace. Footsteps shuffled on the rough stone steps. Jasper turned very slowly, but could see nothing.