"That is just what Carr said," I went on; "for he lost something of his, poor fellow. However, I had left them with Jane in a--in a _safe place_."
I did not think it necessary to mention the tea-caddy.
"Oh! so Carr knew you had charge of them, did he?" said Charles. "Have some of these grapes, Middleton; the white ones are the best."
"Yes," I said, "he was the only person who had any idea of such a thing.
I am very careful, I can tell you; and I did not mean to have half the ship"s company know that I had valuables to such an amount upon me. When I told Jane about them--"
"Oh, then, Jane--I beg her pardon, Miss Middleton--was aware you had them with you?"
"Of course," I replied; "and she was quite astonished at them when I showed them to her."
"I hope," continued Charles, with his charming smile--all the more charming because it was so rare--"that Miss Middleton will add me to the number of her friends some day. I live in London, you know; but I wonder at ladies caring to live there. No poultry or garden, to which the feminine mind usually clings."
"Jane seems to like it," I said.
"Yes," replied Charles, meditatively. "I dare say she is very wise. A woman who lives alone is much safer in town than in an isolated house in the country, in case of fire, or thieves, or----"
"Well, I don"t know that," I said. "I don"t see that they are so very safe. Why, only the night before I came down here----" I stopped. I had looked up to catch a sudden glimpse of Carr"s face, pale and uneasy, watching us in a mirror opposite. In a moment I saw his face turn smiling to another--Evelyn"s, I think--and both were gone.
Charles"s light steel eyes were fixed full upon me.
""Only the night before you came down here," you were saying," he remarked, leaning back and half shutting them as usual.
"Yes, only the night before I came down here our house was broken into;"
and I gave him a short account of what had happened. "And only the night before _that_," I added, "a poor woman was murdered in Jane"s old house.
I remember it especially, because I went to the house by mistake, not knowing Jane had moved, and I saw her, poor thing, sitting by the fire.
I don"t see that living in town _is_ so much safer for life and property, after all."
"Dear me! no. You are right, perfectly right," said Charles, dreamily.
"Your sister"s experience proves it. And that other poor creature--only the night before--and in Miss Middleton"s former house, too. Well, Middleton," with a start, "I suppose we ought to be going back now. I have got all I want, if you have. I wonder what time it is? I"m dog tired."
We re-entered the ball-room to find the last valse being played, and a crowd of people taking leave of Lady Mary.
"Where"s father?" asked Charles, as Ralph came up. "He ought to be here to say good-night."
"He"s gone to bed," said Ralph. "Aunt Mary sent him. He was quite done up. He has been on his legs all day. I expect he will be laid up to-morrow."
In a quarter of an hour the ball-room was empty, and Lady Mary, who was dragging herself wearily towards the hall as the last carriage rolled away, felt that she might safely restore the balance of her mind by a sudden lapse from the gracious and benevolent to the acid and severe.
"To bed! to bed!" she kept repeating. "Where is Evelyn? I want her arm.
General Marston, Colonel Middleton, will you have the goodness to go and glean up these young people? Mrs. Marston and Lady Delmour, you must both be tired to death. Let us go on, and they can follow."
General Marston and I found a whole flock of the said young people in the library, candle in hand, laughing and talking, thinking they were going that moment, but not doing it, and all, in fact, listening to Charles, who was expounding a theory of his own respecting ball dresses, which seemed to meet with the greatest feminine derision.
"First take your silk slip," he was saying as we came in. "There is nothing indiscreet in mentioning a slip; is there, Evelyn? I trust not; for I heard Lady Delmour telling Mrs. Wright that all well-brought-up young ladies had silk slips. Then--"
"He exposes his ignorance more entirely every moment," said Evelyn. "Let us all go to bed, and leave him to hold forth to men who know as little as himself."
"Oh, Ralph!" said Aurelia, pointing to the jewels on her neck and arms; "before we go I want you to take back these. I don"t like keeping them myself; I am afraid of them." And she began to take them off and lay them on the table.
"Nonsense, my pet; keep them yourself, and lock them up in your dressing-case." And Ralph held them towards her.
"I haven"t got a dressing-case," said Aurelia, pouting; "and my hat-box won"t lock. I don"t like having them. I wish you would keep them yourself."
"Bother!" said Ralph; "and father has gone to bed. He can"t put them back into his safe, and he keeps the key himself. Where is the bag they go in?"
Aurelia said that she had seen him put it behind a certain jar on the chimney-piece in the morning-room, and Carr went for it, she following him with a candle, as all the lamps had been put out. They presently returned with it, and Ralph, who had been collecting all the jewels spread over the table, shovelled them in with little ceremony.
"Bother!" he said again, looking round and swinging the bag; "what on earth am I to do with them? Ah, well, here goes!" and he opened a side drawer in a ma.s.sive writing-table and shoved the bag in.
"There!" he said, locking it, and putting the key in his pocket; "they will do very well there till to-morrow. Are you content now, Aurelia?"
"Oh yes," she said, "I am, if you are." And she bade us good-night and followed in the wake of the others, who were really under way at last.
As we all tramped wearily up-stairs to the smoking-room I saw Charles draw Ralph aside and whisper something to him.
"Nonsense!" I heard Ralph say. "Safe enough. Besides, who would suspect their being there? Just as safe as in the strong-box. Brahma lock. Won"t be bothered any more about them."
Charles shrugged his shoulders and marched off to bed. Ralph and Carr likewise went off shortly afterwards to their rooms in the lodge. Carr looked tired to death. I went down with them, at Ralph"s request, to lock the door behind them, as all the servants had gone to bed.
It was a fine night, still and cold, with a bright moon. It had evidently been snowing afresh, for there was not a trace of wheels upon the ground; but it had ceased now.
"Good-night!" called Ralph and Carr, as they went down the steps together. I watched the two figures for a moment in the moonlight, their footsteps making a double track in the untrodden snow. The cold was intense. I drew back shivering, and locked and bolted the door.
CHAPTER VIII.
It is very seldom I cannot sleep, but I could not that night. There was something in the intense quiet and repose of the great house, after all the excitement of the last few hours, that oppressed me. Everything seemed, as I lay awake, so unnaturally silent. There was not a sound in the wide grate, where the last ashes of the fire were silently giving up the ghost, not a rumble of wind in the old chimney which had had so much to say the night before. I tossed and turned, and vainly sought for sleep, now on this side, now on that. At last I gave up trying, half in the hope that it might steal upon me unawares. I thought of the play and the ball, of poor Charles and his debts--of anything and everything--but it was no good. In the midst of a jumble of disconnected ideas I suddenly found myself listening again to the silence--listening as if it had been broken by a sound which I had not heard. My watch ticked loud and louder on the dressing-table, and presently I gave quite a start as the distant stable clock tolled out the hour: One, two, three, four. I had gone to bed before three. Had I been awake only an hour? It seemed incredible. Getting up on tiptoe, vaguely afraid myself of breaking the silence, I noiselessly pushed aside the heavy curtains and looked out.
The moon had set, but by the frosty starlight the outline of the great snow-laden trees and the wide sweep of white drive were still dimly visible. All was silent without as within. Not a branch moved or let fall its freight of snow. There was not a breath of wind stirring. I was on the point of getting back into bed, when I thought in the distance I heard a sound. I listened intently. No! I must have been mistaken. Ah!
again, and nearer! I held my breath. I could distinctly hear a stealthy step coming up the stairs. My room was the nearest to the staircase end of the corridor, and any one coming up the stairs must pa.s.s my door.
With a presence of mind which, I am glad to say, rarely deserts me, I blew out my candle, slipped to the door, and noiselessly opened it a c.h.i.n.k.
Some one was coming down the corridor with the lightness of a cat, candle in hand, as a faint light showed me. Another moment, and I saw Charles, pale and haggard, still in evening-dress, coming towards me. He was without his shoes. He pa.s.sed my door and went noiselessly into his own room, a little farther down the pa.s.sage. There was the faintest suspicion of a sound, as of a key being gently turned in the lock, and then all was still again, stiller than ever.
What could Charles have been after? I wondered. He could not have been returning from seeing Denis, who was not only much better, but was in the room beyond his own. And why had he still got on his evening clothes at four o"clock in the morning? I determined to ask him about it next day, as I got back into bed again, and then, while wondering about it and trying to get warm, I fell fast asleep. I was only roused, after being twice called, to find that it was broad daylight, and to hear being carried down the boxes of many of the guests who were leaving by an early train.
I was late, but not so late as some. Breakfast was still going on.
Evelyn and Ralph had been up to see their friends off, but General and Mrs. Marston and Carr, who was staying on, came in after I did. Lady Mary and Aurelia were having breakfast in their own rooms. I think nothing is more dreary than a long breakfast-table, laid for large numbers, with half a dozen picnicking at it among the debris left by earlier ravages. Evelyn, behind the great silver urn, looked pale and preoccupied, and had very little to say for herself when I journeyed up to her end of the table and sat down by her. She asked me twice if I took sugar, and was not bright and alert and ready in conversation, as I think girls should be. Carr, too, was eating his breakfast in silence beside Mrs. Marston.
It was not cheerful. And then Charles came in, listless and tired, and without an appet.i.te. He sat down wearily on the other side of Evelyn, and watched her pour out his coffee without a word.
"The Carews and Edmonts and Lady Delmour and her daughter have just gone," said Evelyn, "and Mr. Denis."