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The Man with a Shadow
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North shuddered as he bowed his head.
“And I am right in thinking it was you who half killed him?”
“Yes,” said North; “it was I.”
“I don’t wonder at it,” said Salis quietly. “Now I’ll answer your question. Mary and I hoped we had broken all that affair off between my sister and Candlish; but last night I made a discovery, and we did quarrel.”
“And the weak, foolish girl flew to that narcotic poison to end her trouble,” said North thoughtfully. “Ah, well, you must watch her now. There is no danger. It is past.”
“Thanks to you!”
“Thanks to me? Perhaps so; but don’t send for me again unless it is a case of emergency. There, I must go now.”
He rose painfully, looking wild and haggard; but the next moment his whole appearance changed, and he gave his friend a tremendous back-handed blow in the chest.
“She’ll be all right, old chap, and ready to carry on her games again directly. She’s a lively one, parson; as sprightly a filly as was ever foaled. And you, too – you sham old saint; I can see through you, and Madame Crippleoria upstairs! I – ”
He smote himself heavily in the mouth, uttered a low groan, and with a despairing look in his eyes that seemed mingled of horror and fright, he glanced wildly at Salis, and hurried from the place.
Volume Three – Chapter Seven.
Haunted
“Leo, how could you do so foolish a thing?” said Mary Salis, a few days later, as she sat by her sister’s couch.
“What do you mean?” said Leo feebly.
“You know what I mean, dear. Is life so valueless that in a rash moment you would have cast it away?”
“Do you suppose, then, that I tried to take my life?” cried Leo, in a low, weak voice.
“Don’t let’s talk about it,” said Mary, with a shudder; “unless it is in sorrow.”
“Why was it placed there?” said Leo, catching her sister’s wrist.
“Placed there?”
“Yes. Was it Hartley’s doing?”
“Hartley’s doing?”
“Yes; the glass standing on my table as if it held water. Did Hartley do it, Mary?”
“Is your mind wandering, dear?” said Mary, laying her cool hand upon her sister’s white forehead.
“No; I’m as calm as you are. Hartley must have placed it ready for me – to get rid of his wicked sister, I suppose.”
“Leo! Don’t speak like that. How can you, dear? Hartley place a glass for you!”
“Yes. I thought it was water, and I drank it.”
“Hush, Leo, dear!”
“You don’t believe me! Very well; I cannot help it. The stuff was placed ready for me on the table, and I drank it.”
Mary sighed, but she kept her cool, soft hand pressed upon her sister’s brow.
“Why do you stop here?” said Leo, at last.
“Because I wish to talk to you – to try and be of some help.”
There was a silence which lasted some minutes, and then Leo turned her fierce dark eyes sharply on her sister.
“You have kept back his letters,” she said sternly.
“His letters!”
“Yes; he has written to me since I have been ill.”
Mary shook her head, and Leo gazed full in her eyes to satisfy herself that this was the truth.
“Has he sent to ask how I am?”
“No.”
Leo closed her eyes, and lay back with her lips moving slightly, while Mary watched and wondered whether North would come and see her sister again, and whether any fresh eccentricity had been noticed.
Had she known all she would have been less calm.
That morning Cousin Thompson had come down, gone straight to the Manor, and saluted Mrs Milt.
“Doctor in his room?”
“No, sir; master’s ill.”
“Not seriously?” said Cousin Thompson, with thoughts of being next of kin.
“I don’t know, sir,” said the housekeeper. “Master certainly don’t seem as I should like to see him.”
“Dear me!” said Cousin Thompson thoughtfully. “That’s bad, Mrs Milt; that’s bad. However, I’ll go up and see him.”
The housekeeper shook her head.
“What do you mean, Mrs Milt?”
“I mean that I don’t think he’ll see you, sir.”
“Oh, stuff and nonsense! Go and tell him I’m here.”
Другие электронные книги автора George Fenn
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