Part 77 (1/2)
Burden had switched off some of the electric lights in the corridor--was, indeed, prepared to switch the remainder if any one happened to come up--and she could just see a face through the window.
The sight of it almost made her scream, for the face was partially covered by a c.r.a.pe mask, through which the eyes gleamed fiercely.
Burden clapped her hand to her mouth to stifle the cry of terror, and, absolutely incapable of remaining on the spot, fled to her own room and locked herself in.
Ted raised the window noiselessly and stepped into the corridor. He had a plan of the house, drawn from Burden's description, and he made straight for the countess' room. The Parson stood at the bottom of the ladder on guard. And each man carried a revolver loaded in all six barrels.
A few minutes before the burglar had so neatly effected his entrance, the men left the smoking room for the drawing-room--all excepting Lord Turfleigh, who had taken a soda and brandy with his cigar, and deemed it prudent to indulge in a little nap before joining the ladies.
Drake was a little less excited than he had been, but he was still resolved to ask Luce to be his wife, and he meant to take her into the conservatory, or one of the rooms where they could be alone for a few minutes. But when he entered the drawing-room she was playing. He went up to the piano, and, bending over it as if to look at the music, whispered:
”Will you go into the conservatory presently?”
She nodded, and without raising her eyes, but with a sudden flush. Drake went across the room to where Lady Angleford and Lady Wolfer were seated, talking, and the first word he heard was Nell's name.
”Of course it is the same,” Lady Wolfer was saying eagerly. ”Her brother was at the engineers, Bardsley & Bardsley! And Nell has been near us all this time, and in this house, and I didn't know it! If I had, I would have gone to her at once. She's the dearest and sweetest girl in all the world, and I owe her----” She stopped and sighed, but not sadly. ”She left us quite suddenly to go to her stepmother, who was a cousin of my husband's; and I have only seen her once since. They--she and her brother--were living in one of these large mansions--a dreadfully crowded and noisy place; but, though they were poor, she seemed quite happy and contented. I begged her to come and live with me, but she would not leave her brother--though for that matter we should have been delighted to have him also, especially if he is anything like her. Oh, yes, the dearest girl! And you don't know how much I owe her! Some day I may be tempted to tell you.” She sighed again, and was silent for a moment, as she recalled the scene in her bedroom on the night of the dinner party, the night before Nell had left Wolfer House so suddenly.
”I must go and see her to-morrow morning. They say she is engaged to the young man, the violinist.”
Lady Angleford nodded.
”Yes; and if she was engaged to him when you last saw her, that would account for her happiness, notwithstanding her poverty. She is an extremely pretty girl. I remember her quite well. I saw her at your dinner party, you know. I hope she is going to marry a man worthy of her. I'll go with you to see her to-morrow, if you'll let me.”
Drake stood listening, his hands clasped behind his back, his face set sternly. Every word they said caused him a pang of pain; and as he listened, his mind went back to the happy weeks when Nell was engaged to a man who certainly was not worthy of her.
Lady Angleford looked up at him.
”We were talking of Miss Lorton and her brother, Drake,” she said.
”She's a kind of connection of Lady Wolfer's, and lived with them for a time. I wish you would see the brother and see if he really is too young to be the resident engineer. It would be so nice to have some one whom one knows.”
”I will see,” he said, so grimly that Lady Wolfer glanced up at him with some surprise; and, as he moved away, Lady Angleford looked after him and sighed.
”How changed he is!” she said, in a low voice.
”In what way?” asked Lady Wolfer.
The countess was silent for a moment or two.
”He seems as if he were unhappy about something,” she said; ”as if something were worrying him. I only saw him twice before he came into the t.i.tle, and though he was by no means 'loud' or effusive, he was bright and cheerful; but now----I noticed the change the moment he came into the Hall on his return. It seems so strange. He had cause for anxiety then, for there was a chance of his losing Angleford; but now one would think he possessed all that a man could desire.”
”The vanity of human wishes, my dear!” said Lady Wolfer. ”Something may have happened while he was abroad,” she suggested in a low voice.
”You mean a love affair? I don't think so.”
The countess glanced toward the piano. She felt sure that Drake was about to renew his engagement with Lady Luce, and she deemed him the last man in the world to marry for the sake of ”convenience.”
Drake moved about the room restlessly, waiting for Luce to rise from the piano; but she was playing a long piece--an interminable one, as it seemed to him. Presently he felt for his pocket handkerchief, and, not finding it, remembered leaving it on the dressing table where Sparling had placed it. He went into the hall to send a servant for it; but there was not one in sight, and he went quickly up the stairs and entered his dressing room. He noticed that most of the electric lights were down, and, disliking the gloom, went toward the row of switches. They were fixed to the wall almost opposite Lady Angleford's dressing room, and as his hand went up to them, he heard a slight sound in the room.
It was a peculiar sound, like the soft bang which is made by the closing of a safe door. For a moment Drake paid no heed to it; then suddenly its significance struck upon him. Lady Angleford was in the drawing-room.
Who could be at the safe?