"Martha Tansey says, darling, that you are unhappy about something she has been telling you concerning this miserable funeral. She ought not to have alarmed you about it. If I had known that you were frightened, or, in fact, knew anything about it, I should have made a point of coming out here yesterday, although I had fifty things to do."
"I had a very good-natured note to-day, Dick, from Lady May," she said--"only a word, but very kindly intended." And she placed the open note in his fingers. When he had read it, Richard dropped the note on the table with a sneer.
"That man, I suspect, is himself the secret promoter of this outrage--a very inexpensive way, this, of making character with Lady May, and placing you under an obligation--the scoundrel!"
Looks and language of hatred are not very pretty at any time, but in the atmosphere of death they acquire a character of horror. Some momentary disturbance of this kind Richard may have seen in his sister's pale face, for he said,--
"Don't mind what I say about that fellow, for I have no patience with myself for having ever known him."
"I am so glad, Dick, you have dropped _that_ acquaintance!" said the young lady.
"You have come at last to think as I do," said Richard.
"It is not so much thinking as something different; the uncertainty about him--the appalling stories you have heard--and, oh! Richard, I had such a dream last night! I dreamt that Mr. Longcluse murdered you. You smile, but I could not have imagined anything that was not real, so vivid, and it was in this room, and--I don't know how, for I forget the beginning of it--the candles went out, and you were standing near the door talking to me, and bright moonlight was at the window, and showed you quite distinctly, and the open door; and Mr. Longcluse came from behind it with a pistol, and I tried to scream, but I couldn't. But you turned about and stabbed at him with a knife or something; it shone in the moonlight, and instantly there was a line of blood across his face; he fired, and I saw you fall back on the floor; I knew you were dead, and I awoke in terror. I thought I still saw his wicked face in the dark, quite white as it was in my dream. I screamed, and thought I was going mad."