Her lips suddenly closed. She started, and drew back from the doorway, trembling violently. Mrs. Crayford looked out at the quiet seaward view.
“Anything there that frightens you, my dear?” she asked. “I can see nothing, except the boats drawn up on the beach.”
“I can see nothing either, Lucy.”
“And yet you are trembling as if there was something dreadful in the view from this door.”
“There is something dreadful! I feel it, though I see nothing. I feel it, nearer and nearer in the empty air, darker and darker in the sunny light. I don’t know what it is. Take me away! No. Not out on the beach. I can’t pass the door. Somewhere else! somewhere else!”
Mrs. Crayford looked round her, and noticed a second door at the inner end of the boat-house. She spoke to her husband.
“See where that door leads to, William.”
Crayford opened the door. It led into a desolate inclosure, half garden, half yard. Some nets stretched on poles were hanging up to dry. No other objects were visible—not a living creature appeared in the place. “It doesn’t look very inviting, my dear,” said Mrs. Crayford. “I am at your service, however. What do you say?”
She offered her arm to Clara as she spoke. Clara refused it. She took Crayford’s arm, and clung to him.
“I’m frightened, dreadfully frightened!” she said to him, faintly. “You keep with me—a woman is no protection; I want to be with you.” She looked round again at the boat-house doorway. “Oh!” she whispered, “I’m cold all over—I’m frozen with fear of this place. Come into the yard! Come into the yard!”