“Some follower of her own,” Miss Malcolm repeated. “You know, then, that the person who let this stranger into the garden was a woman?”
“Yes,” he answered, not a little startled by her self-possession. “I heard a woman’s voice. I took the trouble to follow the man when he came out again, and I discovered that he was a stranger to this place, a fact which, of course, makes the affair so much the more suspicious. I know that robberies are generally managed by collusion with some servant, and I know that the property in this house is of a kind to attract the attention of professional burglars. I considered it, therefore, my duty to inform you of what I had seen.”
“You are very good, but I can fortunately set your mind quite at rest with regard to the plate and other valuables in this house. The man you saw last night is not a burglar, and it was I who admitted him to the garden.”
“Indeed?”
“Yes. He is a relation of mine, who wished to see me without making his appearance here the subject of gossip among the Hazlehurst people. He wrote to me, telling me that he was about to travel through this part of the country, and asking me to give him a private interview. It suited his humour best to come to this place after dark, and to leave it unobserved, as he thought.”
“I trust you will not think me intrusive for having spoken of this subject, Miss Malcolm?”
“Not at all. It was natural you should be interested in the welfare of the house.”
“And in yours. I hope that you will believe that was nearer my thoughts than any sordid fears as to the safety of the old plate and pictures. And now that I am leaving Hazlehurst, Miss Malcolm, may I venture to ask your plans for the future?”
“They are scarcely worth the name of plans. I intend moving from this house to the lodgings I spoke of the other day, that is all.”
“Don’t you think you will find living alone very dull? Would it not be better for you to go into a school, or some place where you could have society?”
“I have thought of that, but I don’t fancy I should quite like the monotonous routine of a school. I am prepared to find my life a little dull, but I am very fond of this place, and I am not without friends here.”
“I can quite imagine that. You ought to have many friends in Hazlehurst.”
“But I have not many friends. I have not the knack of forming friendships. There are only two or three people in the world whose regard I feel sure of, or who seem to understand me.”
“I hope your heart is not quite inaccessible to new claims. There is a subject which I dare not speak of just yet, which it might be cruel to urge upon you at a time when I know your mind is full of grief for the dead; but when the fitting time does come I trust I may not find my case quite hopeless.”
He spoke with a hesitation which seemed strange in so experienced a man of the world. Laura Malcolm looked up at him with the same steady gaze with which her eyes had met his when he spoke of the incident of the previous night.
“When the fitting time comes you will find me ready to act in obedience to the wishes of my benefactor,” she answered, quietly. “I do not consider that the terms of his will are calculated to secure happiness for either of us; but I loved him too dearly—I respect his memory too sincerely to place myself in opposition to his plans.”
“Why should not our happiness be secured by that will, Laura?” John Treverton asked, with sudden tenderness. “Is there no hope that I may ever win your love?”
She shook her head sadly.
“Love very seldom grows out of a position such as ours, Mr. Treverton.”
“We may prove a happy exception to the general rule. But I said I would not talk of this subject today. I only wish you to believe that I am not altogether mercenary—that I would rather forego this fortune than force a hateful alliance upon you.”
Miss Malcolm made no reply to this speech, and after a few minutes’ talk upon indifferent subjects, John Treverton wished her goodbye.
“She would accept me,” he said to himself as he left the house. “Her words seemed to imply as much; the rest remains with me. The ice has been broken, at any rate. But who can that man be, and why did he visit her in such a secret, ignominious manner? If we were differently circumstanced, if I loved her, I should insist upon a fuller explanation.”
He went back to The Laurels, to bid his friends the Sampsons goodbye. The lawyer was ready to drive him over to the station, and made him promise to run down to Hazlehurst again as soon as he was able, and to make The Laurels his headquarters on that and all other occasions.
“You’ll have plenty of lovemaking to do between this and the end of the year,” Mr. Sampson said, facetiously.
He was in very good spirits, having that morning made an advance of money to Mr. Treverton on extremely profitable terms, and he felt a personal interest in that gentleman’s courtship and marriage.
John Treverton went back to town in almost as thoughtful a mood as that in which he had made the journey to Hazlehurst. Plan his course as he might, there was a dangerous coast ahead of him, which he doubted his ability to navigate. Very far away gleamed the lights of the harbour, but between that harbour and the frail bark that carried his fortunes how many shoals and rocks there were whose perils he must encounter before he could lie safe at
