I scratched it with my scissors' point, taking
every precaution lest anyone--you, my good friends, included--should
surprise me. I have ever since kept this secret to myself, and trembled
whenever your frank kind faces looked into the press. There--you at last
know all about it. Can you ever forgive my deceit?'
But I could not make up my mind to reveal it; nor yet to erase the
inscription, which was my alternative thought. Indeed I am a wavering,
irresolute creature as ever lived, in my ordinary mood. High excitement or
passion only can inspire me with decision. Under the inspiration of either,
however, I am transformed, and often both prompt and brave.
'Some one left here last night, I think, Miss,' said Mary Quince, with a
mysterious nod, one morning. ''Twas two o'clock, and I was bad with the
toothache, and went down to get a pinch o' red pepper--leaving the candle
a-light here lest you should awake. When I was coming up--as I was crossing
the lobby, at the far end of the long gallery--what should I hear, but a
horse snorting, and some people a-talking, short and quiet like. So I looks
out o' the window; and there surely I did see two horses yoked to a shay,
and a fellah a-pullin' a box up o' top; and out comes a walise and a bag;
and I think it was old Wyat, please'm, that Miss Milly calls L'Amour, that
stood in the doorway a-talking to the driver.
Pages:
406
407
408
409
410
411
412
413
414
415
416
417
418
419
420
421
422
423
424
425
426
427
428
429
430