Part 125 (1/2)
”Don't alarm yourself,” he went on. ”It's sealed up with my seal; and it's safe in my bankers' keeping. I posted it to them myself. You don't stick at a trifle, Mrs. Dethridge. If I had kept it locked up in the house, you might have forced the lock when my back was turned. If I had kept it about me--I might have had that towel over my face, in the small hours of the morning! The bankers will give you back your Confession--just as they have received it from me--on receipt of an order in my handwriting. Do what I have told you; and you shall have the order to-night.”
She pa.s.sed her ap.r.o.n over her face, and drew a long breath of relief.
Geoffrey turned to the door.
”I will be back at six this evening,” he said. ”Shall I find it done?”
She bowed her head.
His first condition accepted, he proceeded to the second.
”When the opportunity offers,” he resumed, ”I shall go up to my room. I shall ring the dining room bell first. You will go up before me when you hear that--and you will show me how you did it in the empty house?”
She made the affirmative sign once more.
At the same moment the door in the pa.s.sage below was opened and closed again. Geoffrey instantly went down stairs. It was possible that Anne might have forgotten something; and it was necessary to prevent her from returning to her own room.
They met in the pa.s.sage.
”Tired of waiting in the garden?” he asked, abruptly.
She pointed to the dining-room.
”The postman has just given me a letter for you, through the grating in the gate,” she answered. ”I have put it on the table in there.”
He went in. The handwriting on the address of the letter was the handwriting of Mrs. Glenarm. He put it unread into his pocket, and went back to Anne.
”Step out!” he said. ”We shall lose the train.”
They started for their visit to Holchester House.
CHAPTER THE FIFTY-SEVENTH.
THE END.
AT a few minutes before six o'clock that evening, Lord Holchester's carriage brought Geoffrey and Anne back to the cottage.
Geoffrey prevented the servant from ringing at the gate. He had taken the key with him, when he left home earlier in the day. Having admitted Anne, and having closed the gate again, he went on before her to the kitchen window, and called to Hester Dethridge.
”Take some cold water into the drawing-room and fill the vase on the chimney-piece,” he said. ”The sooner you put those flowers into water,”
he added, turning to his wife, ”the longer they will last.”
He pointed, as he spoke, to a nosegay in Anne's hand, which Julius had gathered for her from the conservatory at Holchester House. Leaving her to arrange the flowers in the vase, he went up stairs. After waiting for a moment, he was joined by Hester Dethridge.
”Done?” he asked, in a whisper.
Hester made the affirmative sign. Geoffrey took off his boots and led the way into the spare room. They noiselessly moved the bed back to its place against the part.i.tion wall--and left the room again. When Anne entered it, some minutes afterward, not the slightest change of any kind was visible since she had last seen it in the middle of the day.
She removed her bonnet and mantle, and sat down to rest.