Against Him Who Had Deceived Her, And Finally Against The Whole Human
Race.
Madeleine, On The Contrary, Had No Feelings Of This Nature; But She Had
A Feeling Of Dread, Which Seemed Daily To Increase. She Felt That The
Duplicity Of Her Friend Was So Great, So Enormous, That It Quite Passed
Her Imagination; And Then The Thought That It Must Be He--He, To Whom
Alone, Among All This World Of Strangers, She Felt Herself Attracted On
The Very Ground Of His Sincerity! Again And Again These Thoughts Arose
Within Her And Tortured Her. She Felt As If Her Foothold Must Be
Insecure For Evermore. A Stain Of Impurity Seemed To Have Passed Over
Her Life, Which Made Her Timid And Apprehensive Of All These So-Called
Friends Who Had Thus Misunderstood And Deceived Her.
The Morning After That Night She Was Awakened By Fanny, Who Came Into
Her Room In Her Dressing-Gown Before It Was Quite Light. The Truth Was,
Fanny Had Not Slept Very Soundly, Tormented As She Was The Whole Time By
Her Fears, And By Wondering From Whence The Warning Came. It Was Quite
Certain That It Must Have Proceeded Either From Miss Cordsen Or
Madeleine, For The Windows Of Both Rooms Were Open. If It Were
Madeleine, The Plot Had Become So Involved That She Did Not Dare To
Think Of It. If It Were Miss Cordsen, It Was Bad Enough, But Still Not
So Desperate. From The Sound She Guessed That It Must Be A Glass Of
Water, Or Something Of That Sort, And As Soon As Day Began To Dawn She
Got Up And Left Her Room In The Hope Of Clearing Up The Mystery.
Madeleine Sat Up As She Heard Fanny Come In.
"I Beg Pardon, Madeleine. I Came To See If You Could Give Me A Glass Of
Water. There Is A Spider In Our Water-Bottle."
She Drew Back The Curtains, And There, Sure Enough, Stood The
Water-Bottle With Its Glass. Fanny Gave A Sigh Of Relief, And Left
Madeleine Still Gazing In astonishment. It Was More Than She Could
Understand.
Chapter 14 Pg 97
The Autumn Rains Had Now Begun In earnest. Day After Day The Water Came
Down In Streams, And At Night It Could Be Heard Pattering On The
Window-Panes, And Dripping From The Eaves, Every Time One Woke.
Chapter 14 Pg 98
At First The Rain Came For A Long Time From The South-West, But There
Was Nothing Wonderful In That, For The South-West Is A Rainy Quarter.
But When It Rained For A Whole Fortnight With A North Wind, People Who
Were Weatherwise Maintained That If It Once Began To Rain Steadily From
The North, There Would Be No End To It.
One Morning The Wind Ceased, But The Clouds Lay Heavy And Lowering
Overhead; And Now The Weatherwise Averred, With Much Shaking Of Heads,
That It Would Be Worse Than Ever. The Morning, However, Actually Passed
Without Rain, And The Air Grew Lighter And Clearer; But Just As The
Aspect Began To Improve, The Drizzle Again Commenced.
The Rain Now Set In With Renewed Vigour, With All Its Pleasing Varieties
Of Shower And Deluge; But The Worst Form It Took Was When It Poured
Persistently And Unmercifully From Morning To Night.
The New Moons Came In With Rain And Went Out With Rain, And Every Day Of
The Calendar Was Alike Wet. The Wind Veered About To Every Point Of The
Compass, And Heaped Up Banks Of Fog Out To Sea, And Heavy Masses Of
Cloud Up In The Mountains, Which Finally Drifted Together, And Poured
Down Their Contents In Torrents All Along The West Coast.
And Now The Storms Began In earnest, And Went Soughing Through The Trees
In The Avenue, And Whistling In The Rigging Of The Vessels That Were
Laid Up For The Winter.
In The Old House At Sandsgaard Each Separate Wind Had Its Own Pet
Corner, To Which It Returned With Delight Every Autumn. The North Wind
Came Howling Along Between The Warehouses; The South Wind Took The Wet
Leaves From The Garden And Hurled Them In Handfuls Against The
Window-Panes; The East Wind Whirled Down The Chimneys Till All The Rooms
Were Full Of Smoke; While The Pet Amusement Of The West Wind Was To Make
A Clatter With All The Loose Tiles On The Roof, During The Whole
Livelong Night.
The Consul Kept Going And Looking At The Barometer, And Tapping It To
See If The Quicksilver Was Rising Or Falling: But, To Tell The Truth, It
Did Not Seem To Make Much Matter Which It Did; For The Sky, The Clouds,
The Rain, And The Storm Had All Got Into Such A Jumble, That The Weather
Continued Equally Abominable, Week After Week, During The Whole Winter.
In The Ship-Yard Work Went On But Slowly, For Garman And Worse Were Not
So New-Fangled As To Build Under Cover; But Mr. Robson Still Thought
That He Would Be Ready By The Appointed Day, Although The Weather
Certainly Was "The Very Devil!"
But The Person Who Most Of All Anathematized The Weather, And Indeed The
Whole West Coast, And Everything That Belonged To It, Was Our Friend Mr.
Aalbom. When He Left His House In The Morning, The Wind And Rain Would
Persist In beating In His Face, And When He Came Out Of School, They
Were So Obliging As To Follow Him Right Up Again To His Very Door. When
He Had Gone Part Of The Way Down The Avenue, The Wind Managed To Blow
Down On The Top Of His Umbrella, Which, After Many Struggles, It Finally
Chapter 14 Pg 99
Pressed Down Until His Hat Got Jammed In among The Ribs. Then All At
Once It Began The Same Tactics From Below, And Blew Up Under The
Umbrella, And Between The Master'S Long Legs, Filling Out The Closely
Buttoned Waterproof, Until It Bid Fair To Blow It Away Altogether.
All October And November Went On Much In The Same Fashion, And People
Who Were Given To Jokes Began To Say That They Had Quite Forgotten The
Sun'S Appearance.
Chapter 15 Pg 100
At Last, One Day Well On In december, The Dreadful Weather Seemed To
Have Worn Itself Out For A Time. The Sky Was Perfectly Clear, And Not
Even The Smallest Cloud Was To Be Seen Which Could Give Rise To
Apprehension. During The Night There Had Been A Few Degrees Of Frost,
And The Roads, Which Had For A Long Time Been Nearly Impassable, Became
All
