"So you have come at last!" said Mrs. Askerton. "Till I got your message I thought there was to be some dreadful misfortune."
"Something dreadful! One often anticipates something very bad without exactly knowing what. At least, I do. I am always expecting a catastrophe;--when I am alone that is;--and then I am so often alone."
"That simply means low spirits, I suppose?"
"Once when we were in India we lived close to the powder magazine, and we were always expecting to be blown up. You never lived near a powder magazine."
"No, never;--unless there's one at Belton. But I should have thought that was exciting."
"And then there was the gentleman who always had the sword hanging over him by the horse's hair."
"Don't look so innocent, Clara. You know what I mean. What were the results at last of your cousin's diligence as a detective officer?"
"Mrs. Askerton, you wrong my cousin greatly. He never once mentioned your name while he was with us. He did not make a single allusion to you, or to Colonel Askerton, or to the cottage."
"Then I beg his pardon. But not the less has he been busy making inquiries."
"But why should you say that there is a powder magazine, or a sword hanging over your head?"
Here was the subject ready opened to her hand, and yet Clara did not know how to go on with it. It seemed to her now that it would have been easier for her to commence it, if Mrs. Askerton had made no commencement herself. As it was, she knew not how to introduce the subject of Captain Aylmer's letter, and was almost inclined to wait, thinking that Mrs. Askerton might tell her own story without any such introduction. But nothing of the kind was forthcoming. Mrs. Askerton began to talk of the frost, and then went on to abuse Ireland, complaining of the hardship her husband endured in being forced to go thither in winter to look after his tenants.
"What did you mean," said Clara, at last, "by the sword hanging over your head?"
"I think I told you what I meant pretty plainly. If you did not understand me I cannot tell you more plainly."
"It is odd that you should say so much, and not wish to say more."
"Ah!--you are making your inquiries now."
"In my place would not you do so too? How can I help it when you talked of a sword? Of course you make me ask what the sword is."