'
Or, suddenly:--
'Can Mary Quince write, in case you were ill?'
Or,
'Can she take a message exactly?'
Or,
'Is she a person of any enterprise and resource, and cool in an emergency?'
Now, these questions did not come all in a string, as I write them down
here, but at long intervals, and were followed quickly by ordinary talk;
but they generally escaped from my companion after silence and gloomy
thought; and though I could extract nothing more defined than these
questions, yet they seemed to me to point at some possible danger
contemplated in my good cousin's dismal ruminations.
Another topic that occupied my cousin's mind a good deal was obviously the
larceny of my pearl cross. She made a note of the description furnished by
the recollection, respectively, of Mary Quince, Mrs. Rusk, and myself. I
had fancied her little vision of the police was no more than the result of
a momentary impulse; but really, to judge by her methodical examinations of
us, I should have fancied that she had taken it up in downright earnest.
Having learned that my departure from Knowl was to be so very soon, she
resolved not to leave me before the day of my journey to Bartram-Haugh; and
as day after day passed by, and the hour of our leave-taking approached,
she became more and more kind and affectionate.
Pages:
299
300
301
302
303
304
305
306
307
308
309
310
311
312
313
314
315
316
317
318
319
320
321
322
323