Part 39 (1/2)
There was no answer; Mrs. Ellmother had abruptly risen once more.
”Hus.h.!.+” she whispered. ”Don't I hear somebody near us?”
Alban at once went back, along the winding path which they had followed.
No creature was visible in the gardens or on the terrace. On returning, he found it impossible to use his eyes to any good purpose in the obscurity among the trees. He waited a while, listening intently. No sound was audible: there was not even air enough to stir the leaves.
As he returned to the place that he had left, the silence was broken by the chimes of the distant church clock, striking the three-quarters past ten.
Even that familiar sound jarred on Mrs. Ellmother's shattered nerves. In her state of mind and body, she was evidently at the mercy of any false alarm which might be raised by her own fears. Relieved of the feeling of distrust which had thus far troubled him, Alban sat down by her again--opened his match-box to relight his pipe--and changed his mind.
Mrs. Ellmother had unconsciously warned him to be cautious.
For the first time, he thought it likely that the heat in the house might induce some of the inmates to try the cooler atmosphere in the grounds. If this happened, and if he continued to smoke, curiosity might tempt them to follow the scent of tobacco hanging on the stagnant air.
”Is there n.o.body near us?” Mrs. Ellmother asked. ”Are you sure?”
”Quite sure. Now tell me, did you really mean it, when you said just now that you wanted my advice?”
”Need you ask that, sir? Who else have I got to help me?”
”I am ready and willing to help you--but I can't do it unless I know first what has pa.s.sed between you and Miss de Sor. Will you trust me?”
”I will!”
”May I depend on you?”
”Try me!”
CHAPTER x.x.xV. THE TREACHERY OF THE PIPE.
Alban took Mrs. Ellmother at her word. ”I am going to venture on a guess,” he said. ”You have been with Miss de Sor to-night.”
”Quite true, Mr. Morris.”
”I am going to guess again. Did Miss de Sor ask you to stay with her, when you went into her room?”
”That's it! She rang for me, to see how I was getting on with my needlework--and she was what I call hearty, for the first time since I have been in her service. I didn't think badly of her when she first talked of engaging me; and I've had reason to repent of my opinion ever since. Oh, she showed the cloven foot to-night! 'Sit down,' she says; 'I've nothing to read, and I hate work; let's have a little chat.' She's got a glib tongue of her own. All I could do was to say a word now and then to keep her going. She talked and talked till it was time to light the lamp. She was particular in telling me to put the shade over it. We were half in the dark, and half in the light. She trapped me (Lord knows how!) into talking about foreign parts; I mean the place she lived in before they sent her to England. Have you heard that she comes from the West Indies?”
”Yes; I have heard that. Go on.”
”Wait a bit, sir. There's something, by your leave, that I want to know.
Do you believe in Witchcraft?”
”I know nothing about it. Did Miss de Sor put that question to you?”
”She did.”
”And how did you answer?”
”Neither in one way nor the other. I'm in two minds about that matter of Witchcraft. When I was a girl, there was an old woman in our village, who was a sort of show. People came to see her from all the country round--gentlefolks among them. It was her great age that made her famous. More than a hundred years old, sir! One of our neighbors didn't believe in her age, and she heard of it. She cast a spell on his flock.
I tell you, she sent a plague on his sheep, the plague of the Bots. The whole flock died; I remember it well. Some said the sheep would have had the Bots anyhow. Some said it was the spell. Which of them was right?
How am I to settle it?”