The guests appeared punctually at seven o"clock. Such a thing as being invited for one hour, and strolling in an hour or two after it, was a mark of English breeding never yet heard of in the simple-mannered French town. Miss Featherston, a smart, lively young woman, wore a cherry-coloured silk; Mary Carimon was in black; she had gone into slight mourning for Lavinia. Good little Monsieur Jules had put a small band on his hat.
Captain Fennel was not at home to tea, and the ladies had it all their own way in the matter of talking. What with items of news from the old home, b.u.t.termead, and Stella"s telling about her own plans, the conversation never flagged a moment.
"Yes, that"s what I am going to Paris for," said Stella, explaining her plans. "I don"t seem likely to marry, for n.o.body comes to ask me, and I mean to go out in the world and make a little money. It is a sin and a shame that a healthy girl, the eldest of three sisters, should be living upon her poor mother in idleness. Not much of a girl, you may say, for I was three-and-thirty last week! but we all like to pay ourselves compliments when age is in question."
Nancy laughed. Almost the first time she had laughed since Lavinia"s death.
"So you are going to Paris to learn French, Stella!"
"I am going to Paris to learn French, Nancy," a.s.sented Miss Featherston.
"I know it pretty well, but when I come to speak it I am all at sea; and you can"t get out as a governess now unless you speak it fluently. At each of the two situations I applied for in Worcestershire, it was the one fatal objection: "We should have liked you, Miss Featherston, but we can only engage a lady who will speak French with the children." So I made my mind up to _speak_ French; and I wrote to good Monsieur Jules Carimon, and he has found me a place to go to in Paris, where not a soul in the household speaks English. He says, and I say, that in six months I shall chatter away like a native," she concluded, laughing.
XIV.
About nine o"clock Captain Fennel came home. He was gracious to the visitors. Stella Featherston thought his manners were pleasing. Shortly afterwards Charley Palliser called. He apologized for the lateness of the hour, but his errand was a good-natured one. His aunt, Mrs. Hardy, had received a box of delicious candied fruits from Ma.r.s.eilles; she had sent him with a few to Mrs. Fennel, if that lady would kindly accept them. The truth was, every one in Sainteville felt sorry just now for poor Nancy Fennel.
Nancy looked as delighted as a child. She called to Flore to bring plates, turned out the fruits and handed them round. Flore also brought in the gateau Suisse and gla.s.ses, and a bottle of Picardin wine, that the company might regale themselves. Charley Palliser suddenly spoke; he had just thought of something.
"Would it be too much trouble to give me back that book which I lent you a week or two ago--about the plans of the fortifications?" he asked, turning to Captain Fennel. "I want it sometimes for reference in my studies."
"Not at all; I ought to have returned it to you before this--but the trouble here has driven other things out of my head," replied Captain Fennel. "Let me see--where did I put it? Nancy, do you remember where that book is?--the heavy one, you know, with red edges and a mottled cover."
"That book? Why, it is on the drawers in our bedroom," replied Nancy.
"To be sure; I"ll get it," said Captain Fennel.
His wife called after him to bring down the dominoes also; some one might like a game. The captain did not intend to take the trouble of going himself; he meant to send Flore. But Flore was not in the kitchen, and he took it for granted she was upstairs. In fact, Flore was in the yard at the pump; but he never thought of the yard or the pump. Lighting a candle, he strode upstairs.
He was coming down again, the open box of dominoes and Charley Palliser"s book in one hand, the candlestick in the other, when the same sort of thing seemed to occur which had occurred on Sunday night.
Hearing, as he thought, some one close behind him, almost treading, as it were, upon his heels, and thinking it was Flore, he turned his head round, intending to tell her to keep her distance.
Then, with a frightful yell, down dashed Captain Fennel the few remaining stairs, the book, the candlestick, and the box of dominoes all falling in the pa.s.sage from his nerveless hands. The dominoes were hard and strong, and made a great crash. But it was the yell which had frightened the company in the salon.
They flocked out in doubt and wonder. The candle had gone out; and Charley Palliser was bringing forth the lamp to light up the darkness, when he was nearly knocked down by Captain Fennel. Flore, returning from the pump with her own candle, much damaged by the air of the yard, held it up to survey the scene.
Captain Fennel swept past Charley into the salon, and threw himself into a chair behind the door, after trying to dash it to; but they were trooping in behind him. His breath was short, his terrified face looked livid as one meet for the grave.
"Why, what has happened to you, sir?" asked Charles, intensely surprised.
"Oh! he must have seen the thief again!" shrieked Nancy.
"Shut the door; bolt it!" called out the stricken man.
They did as they were bid. This order, as it struck them all, could only have reference to keeping out some nefarious intruder, such as a thief. Flore had followed them in, after picking up the debris. She put the book and the dominoes on the table, and stood staring over her mistress"s shoulder.
"Has the thief got in again, Edwin?" repeated Mrs. Fennel, who was beginning to tremble. "Did you see him?--or hear him?"
"My foot slipped; it sent me headforemost down the stairs," spoke the captain at last, conscious, perhaps, that something must be said to satisfy the inquisitive faces around him. "I heard Flore behind me, and----"
"Not me, sir," put in Flore in her best English. "I was not upstairs at all; I was out at the pump. There is n.o.body upstairs, sir; there can"t be." But Captain Fennel only glared at her in answer.
"What did you cry out at?" asked Charles Palliser, speaking soothingly, for he saw that the man was pitiably unstrung. "Have you had a thief in the house? Did you think you saw one?"
"I saw no thief; there has been no thief in the house that I know of; I tell you I slipped--and it startled me," retorted the captain, his tones becoming savage.
"Then--why did you have the door bolted, captain?" struck in Miss Stella Featherston, who was extremely practical and matter-of-fact, and who could not understand the scene at all.
This time the captain glared at _her_. Only for a moment; a sickly smile then stole over his countenance.
"Somebody here talked about a thief: I said bolt him out," answered he.
With this general explanation they had to be contented; but to none of them did it sound natural or straightforward.
Order was restored. The ladies took a gla.s.s of wine each and some of the gateau, which Flore handed round. Charles Palliser said good-night and departed with his book. Captain Fennel went out at the same time. He turned into the cafe on the Place Ronde, and drank three small gla.s.ses of cognac in succession.
"Nancy, what did you mean by talking about a thief?" began Madame Carimon, the whole thing much exercising her mind.
Upon which, Mrs. Fennel treated them all, including Flore, to an elaborate account of her husband"s fright on the Sunday night.
"It was on the stairs; just as it was again now," she said. "He thought he heard some one following behind him as he came up to bed. He fancied it was Flore; but Flore had left hours before. I never saw any one show such terror in all my life. He said it was Flore behind him to-night, and you saw how terrified he was."
"But if he took it to be Flore, why should he be frightened?" returned Mary Carimon.
"Pardon, mesdames, but it is the same argument I made bold to use to madame," interposed Flore from the background, where she stood. "There is not anything in me to give people fright."
"I--think--it must have been," said Mrs. Fennel, speaking slowly, "that he grew alarmed when he found it was not Flore he saw. Both times."
"Then who was it that he did see--to startle him like that?" asked Mary Carimon.
"Why, he must have thought it was a thief," replied Nancy. "There"s nothing else for it."
At this juncture the argument was brought to a close by the entrance of Monsieur Jules Carimon, who had come to escort his wife and Stella Featherston home.
These curious attacks of terror were repeated; not often, but at a few days" interval; so that at length Captain Fennel took care not to go about the house alone in the dark. He went up to bed when his wife did; he would not go to the door, if a ring came after Flore"s departure, without a light in his hand. By-and-by he improvised a lamp, which he kept on the slab.
What was it that he was scared at? An impression arose in the minds of the two or three people who were privy to this, that he saw, or fancied he saw, in the house the spectre of one who had just been carried out of it, Lavinia Preen. Nancy had no such suspicion as yet; she only thought her husband could not be well. She was much occupied about that time, having at length nerved herself to the task of looking over her poor sister"s effects.
One afternoon, when sitting in Lavinia"s room (Flore--who stayed with her for company--had run down to the kitchen to see that the dinner did not burn), Nancy came upon a small, thin green case. Between its leaves she found three one-hundred-franc notes--twelve pounds in English value.
She rightly judged that it was all that remained of her sister"s nest-egg, and that she had intended to take it with her to Boulogne.
"Poor Lavinia!" she aspirated, the tears dropping from her eyes. "Every farthing remaining of the quarter"s money she left with me for housekeeping."
But now a thought came to Nancy. Placing the case on the floor near her, intending to show it to her husband--she was sitting on a stool before one of Lavinia"s boxes--it suddenly occurred to her that it might be as well to say nothing to him about it. He would be sure to appropriate the money to his own private uses: and Nancy knew that she should need some for hers. There would be her mourning to pay for; and----
The room-door was wide open, and at this point in her reflections Nancy heard the captain enter the house with his latch-key, and march straight upstairs. In hasty confusion, she thrust the little case into the nearest hiding-place, which happened to be the front of her black dress bodice.
"Nancy, I have to go to England," cried the captain. "How hot you look!