Greta had hardly listened. Her eyes had dropped to his breast, her arms had crept about his neck, and her tears were falling fast. But he was not yet conscious of the deluge.
"What do you think? Why, I went to Doctors" Commons and bought the license--dirt cheap, too, at the price--and now it can be done any day--any day--- think of that! So ho! so ho! covering your face, eh?--up, now, up with it--gently. Do you know, they asked me your complexion, the color of your eyes, or something--that old Shylock or somebody--and I couldn"t tell for the life of me--there, a peep, just one wee peep! Why, what"s this--what the d---- What villain--what in the name of mischief is the ma--Why, Greta, you"re cry--yes, you are--you are crying!"
Paul had forced up Greta"s face with gentle violence, and now he held her at arm"s length, surveying her with bewildered looks.
Parson Christian twisted about in his chair. He had not been so much immersed in wars and rumors of wars as to be quite ignorant of what was going on around him. "Greta is but in badly case," he said, pretending to laugh. "She has fettled things in the house over and over again, and she has if"t and haffled over everything. She"s been longing, surely."
The deep voice had a touch of tremor in it this time, and the twinkling old eyes looked hazy.
"Ah, of course!" shouted Paul, in stentorian tones, and he laughed about as heartily as the parson.
Greta"s tears were gone in an instant.
"You must go home at once, Paul," she said; "your mother must not wait a moment longer."
He laughed and bantered and talked of his dismissal. She stopped him with a grave face and a solemn word. At last his jubilant spirit was conquered; he realized that something was amiss. Then she told him what happened at the Ghyll on Monday night. He turned white, and at first stood tongue-tied. Next he tried to laugh it off, but the laughter fell short.
"Must have been my brother," he said; "it"s true, we"re not much alike, but then it was night, dark night, and you had no light but the dim lamp--and at least there"s a family resemblance."
"Your brother Hugh was sitting in his room."
Paul"s heart sickened with an indescribable sensation.
"You found the door of my mother"s room standing open?"
"Wide open."
"And Hugh was in his own room?" said Paul, his eyes flashing and his teeth set.
"I saw him there a moment later."
"My features, my complexion, my height, and my build, you say?"
"The same in everything."
Paul lifted his face, and in that luminous twilight it were an expression of peculiar horror: "In fact, myself--in a gla.s.s?"
Greta shuddered and answered, "Just that, Paul; neither more nor less."
"Very strange," he muttered. He was shaken to the depths. Greta crept closer to his breast.
"And when my mother recovered she said nothing?"
"Nothing."
"You did not question her?"
"How could I? But I was hungering for a word."
Paul patted her head with his tenderest touch.
"Have you seen her since?"
"Not since. I have been ill--I mean, rather unwell."
Parson Christian twisted again in his chair. "What do you think, my lad?
Greta in a dream last night rose out of bed, went to the stair-head, and there fell to the ground."
"My poor darling," said Paul, the absent look flying from his eyes.
"But, blessed be G.o.d, she has no harm," said the parson, and turned once more to his guest.
"Paul, you must hurry away now. Good-bye for the present, dearest. Kiss me good-bye."
But Paul stood there still.
"Greta, do you ever feel that what is happening now has happened before--somehow--somewhere--and where?--when?--the questions keep ringing in your brain and racking your heart--but there is no answer--you are shouting into a voiceless cavern."
His face was as pale as ashes, his eyes were fixed, and his gaze was far away. Greta grew afraid of the horror she had awakened.
"Don"t think too seriously about it," she said. "Besides, I may have been mistaken. In fact, Hugh said--"
"Well, what did he say?"
"He made me ashamed. He said I had imagined I saw you and screamed, and so frightened your mother."
"There are men in the world who would see the Lord of Hosts come from the heavens in glory and say it was only a water-spout."
"But, as you said yourself, it was in the night, and very dark. I had nothing but the feeble oil-lamp to see by. Don"t look like that, Paul."
The girl lifted a nervous hand and covered his eyes, and laughed a little, hollow laugh.
Paul shook himself free of his stupor.
"Good-night, Greta," he said, tenderly, and walked to the door. Then the vacant look returned.
"The answer is somewhere--somewhere," he said, faintly. He shook himself again, and shouted, in his l.u.s.ty tones:
"Good-night, all--good-night, good-night!"
The next instant he was gone.
Out in the road, he began to run; but it was not from exertion alone that his breath came and went in gusts. Before he reached the village his nameless sentiment of dread of the unknown had given way to anxiety for his mother. What was this strange illness that had come upon her in his absence? Her angel-face had been his beacon in darkness. She had lifted his soul from the dust. Tortured by the world and the world"s law, yet Heaven"s peace had settled on her. Let the world say what it would, into her heart the world had not entered.
He hurried on. What a crazy fool he had been to let Natt go off with the trap! Why had not that c.o.xcomb told him what had occurred? He would break every bone in the blockhead"s skin.
How long the road was, to be sure! A hundred fears suggested themselves on the way. Would his mother be worse? Would she be still conscious?
Why, in G.o.d"s name, had he ever gone away?