Part 57 (2/2)

”The house is haunted, you may depend,” said Josephine. ”There have been strange noises next my room for the last three nights.”

”That's a peculiar sound. What do you make of it, Mr. Rutledge?” said Ellerton, walking toward the stairs.

”It is nothing,” he returned, advancing that way too. ”Some of the servants are up there now, perhaps; I will go and see. Don't trouble yourself, Mr. Wynkar.”

”I'll go,” I cried, starting forward. ”Perhaps it's Kitty, she may be waiting for me.”

Ellerton paused and listened; Mr. Rutledge pa.s.sed up before him, followed closely by Tigre. I brushed past Ellerton and kept close to Mr.

Rutledge. Mrs. Roberts was standing at the head of the stairs.

”Mrs. Roberts,” said Ellerton, ”we're investigating an unusual noise up here. Can you account for it?”

Now, Mrs. Roberts never could abide the insinuation that anything might possibly be going on of which she was ignorant; if she had nosed anything herself, she did not, as we have seen, lack zeal in ferreting it out, but it was impossible to put her on a new scent; she refused to acknowledge any other sagacity than her own. So, on the present occasion, as she had heard no noise, she utterly scouted the idea, and a.s.signed some trifling cause for it; the girls, she said, had been in the attic, clearing out an old store-room; probably that was what Mr.

Rutledge had heard. Ellerton hurried down to inform the ladies of the explanation, and Mr. Rutledge, crossing the hall, was going toward his dressing-room, when Tigre, who had been exploring the neighborhood, now rushed whining along the hall, with his nose to the floor. The attention of all was attracted to him; he darted under the wardrobe, and began scratching and growling earnestly at the door of Victor's hiding-place.

I followed Mr. Rutledge's quick glance from my face to the wardrobe, and, starting forward, I tried to call off Tigre.

”Come here, sir! Come here, I say!” But he was too intent upon his discovery to heed me.

”He is a little nuisance,” said Mrs. Roberts. ”I never approved having him allowed to come upstairs.”

”Tigre, what are you after, sir?” said Mr. Rutledge, as he walked down the hall toward him.

”Oh, nothing, I'm sure, sir, nothing!” I cried, following him. ”Don't scold him. Tigre, come out, you rascal! come out, I say!” and I stamped vehemently on the floor.

”He will not mind you,” said Mr. Rutledge, in a low voice. ”He will obey his instincts, and persevere till he has reached the object of his search.”

”He isn't searching for anything,” I exclaimed, dropping down on my knees and stooping till I could see under the wardrobe. ”If I could only reach him. Tigre--you torment--if you don't come, I'll whip you, _so!_ Here, here, _poor_ fellow! Come here, my pet!”

Tigre desisted a moment from his whining, and wavered in his determination. I thrust my arm under the wardrobe, seized him, and drew him, yelping, out; then, springing up, ran across the hall, and almost threw him into my room. Mr. Rutledge watched me silently with a contracted brow, and crossing over to his own room, shut himself into it.

Not a very faithful index, certainly of the real feelings of men and women, is to be obtained from their outward and visible emotions. A very gay party, no doubt, the visitors who came that night to Rutledge, thought they found there. They little guessed how unhappy and disappointed a man their courteous host was, nor that Mrs. Churchill, serene and charming, was looking in the face the failure of the hopes of years, nor that the pretty Josephine's smiles were in ghastly contrast with the bitterness of her spirit; nor that Phil, who knew her face too well to be deceived by them, was smarting under the realizing sense it gave him of her ambition and worldliness. And if they had guessed the interpretation of _my_ gaiety!

There were just enough of us to make the dancing spirited, and to keep every one on the floor. We had before always danced in the parlors, but some evil spirit prompted Grace to propose that we should try a double set of Lancers in the hall. Everybody, encouraged, doubtless, by their attendant evil spirits, seemed to think nothing could be more delightful than the hall, and urged the moving of the piano out there; and there we adjourned. I tried not to remember how plainly we could be heard in a certain room at the end of the hall above; how the laughing and the music would grate on the jealous ears there. If he caught the tones of my voice, he would not know that I laughed because I must keep pace with the captain's jokes, and encourage him in punning and joke-making, to keep him from the hideous topic that he always turned to when left to himself; and to drive away the suspicion that sharpened Mr. Rutledge's eyes, and to keep Mr. Mason my admirer, and no more.

”Like the lady of 'Old Oak Chest' memory, 'I'm weary of dancing,'” I cried at length, ”let's amuse ourselves some other way.”

”Play hide-and-seek, like that ancient party?” asked Phil, throwing himself on the lowest step of the stairs.

”That's not a bad suggestion!” exclaimed Grace. ”This is just the place for such an adventure. I don't mean that I want anybody to be smothered in a chest exactly, but lost for a little while, and hunted for, you know. It would be so jolly.”

”So it would!” echoed Ellerton.

”And there's no end of capital hiding-places about the house, so many odd rooms where you'd never expect them; and acres of attic, beyond a doubt!”

”Come!” cried Josephine, ”we're all ripe for adventure. Let's have a game of hide-and-seek.”

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