Miracle Gold (Vol. 1 of 3)

use but the clothes she wore, not even her dressing bag. In the first place, she had not cared to encumber herself; and, in the second place, if she by chance met

d: "Because that odious, insolent man lied when he said I should see little of him. He was the first person I met. Because he dared--had the intolerable impudence to try and kiss me. Because, having failed in his attempt, he pursued me through the house with his hateful attentions. I am very poor. I am obliged to do something for a living. I am not a cook or a dairymaid. My

is offence would have been less if you

r a dairymaid. I am a lady. All I know is that attempting to kiss me was an unpardonable outrage, an

he could not walk about all night in this unknown country. She had not the means to secure accommodation at an hotel. She could not spare m

and left made no confusion, for they were at right angles. The road itself was not much frequented by day, and by night was deserted. The heavy rain of the evening kept all folk who had t

red the grounds. The gate groaned in opening and shutting,

ither Mr. Leigh or a companion, she always spent the night in her own little home, the gate lodge. This night Mr. Leigh, his mother, and Mrs. Brown believed a companion and Mr. Leigh would be in the house. Well, there would be, but not exactly as

Edith chose this way because of the silence secured to her footsteps by the grass, and the additional obscurity afforded by its darker colour. In front of the house ran a thick row o

hind the dining-room stood the breakfast parlour, which had been converted into a sleeping chamber for Mrs. Leigh's companion, so that the companion might be near Mrs. Leigh in the night time. At the rear of the companion's sleeping chamber was a large conservatory in which the invalid took great delight, seated in her wheeled chair. Behind the library was the kitchen, no higher than the conservatory. The back walls of the breakfast-room and library for

e the first floor nestled a number of attics, for servants and bachelors in emergency. Only two of the bedrooms on the first

ad had to take it in lieu of a debt, and he could neither sell nor let it at a figure which would pay him back his money, or fair interest on it. Besides, he s

necessities. Indeed, he came but seldom to his mother's home; not more than once a month, and then his arrival brought no additional custom to the shops of the town, for he generally brought a box or hamper with him full, he told

o sound but the rain which still fell in heavy sheets. No light was visible in any room, but whether this was due to the absence of light inside, or to heavy curtains and blinds she could not say

The sound of the rain would blunt the sound of her footsteps, and

the open drive. She gained left-hand corner of the house, and

he open air. That would be bad enough. It would mean that her flight had been discovered already. It might mean that Oscar Leigh was n

n, the wind

ed like a wild beast, like some savage creature that would crouch, and spring, and seize, and rend. Here she felt comparatively safe. The door was locked on the inside. She had locked it on coming into the room hours ago. If she sat down in the old arm-chair she could not be approached from behind. However, ere sitting down she m

me; she could not guess how long, but as it was at length accomplished, and she was taking her first few moments of rest in the easy-chair, she heard

cumstance seemed to bring the loathsome Oscar Leigh closer to her. She resolved to sit still. It was eleven o'clock. It would be bright daylight in a few hours. As soon as the sun rose she should, if the rain had ceased, le

excitement and anxiety sleep would keep off. But even if she should happen to doze, there was small risk. Nothing could be mo

marked during the day, that sound passed easily and fully through the building, owing, no doubt, t

its quietest streets, day and night, never suffers solution of the continuity of sound, artificial sound, sound the product of man. In that deepest hush, that awful calm that falls upon London b

rain still fell upon the grass and trees with a murmur like

yards from where she sat, rose a pale blue luminous space, the open window through which she had entered. On her right, at an equal distance, was the invisible door which she had locked upon retiring hours ago. The large, old-fashioned mahogany four-posted bedstead stood in the middle of th

en. A heavy cornice ran round the angles of the walls. From door to window was twenty feet. From the partition against which sh

not from drowsiness, but to shut out as much as possible the memory of the place, the thoughts of her situation. She told herself she was once more back in her unpretending little room in Grimsby Street. She tried to make herself

ou done

have finished

r ear. The voices were those of Oscar Leigh, the hunchback dwarf, and his mother, Mrs

ntrol to avoid springing up and screaming. The voices seemed so close to her she

, mother. I generally do triumph, mother." He spoke in a tone of elation that rose as he progressed in this speech. His accents changed rapidly, and there was a sound of some one moving. "

has lost the use of her limbs, I keep very well. When you are with me, Oscar dear, I do not seem so

life--if you did not, in fact, say they were young. Why, mother, what is seventy? Nothing! I know dozens of women over eighty, and they keep up their spirits and are blithe and gay, and ready to dance at a wedding, if any man s

y I am very dull. Very dull, dear. It is only natural for me to feel dull,

isturbance. Besides, you know, cracked vessels are last broken. You are compelled to take more care of yourself than other

ith you as long as I can. Oscar dear, I hope it may be granted to me to see your children before I die, d

avely, "I have a very handsome wife in my eye. I mean to marry; and I mean to marry her. You know I never make up my mind to do anything that in the end does not come off. But befo

all about it. It is the only thing in the world I am jealous of. Tell me how it

people. If she coughed, or made a noise, she would but attract attention to herself, bring some one, perhaps, knocking at her door. Nothing could be more undesirable than a visitor, or inquiries at her door. If she coughed, to show the speakers that she was awake, Mrs. Leigh, or he, might knock and speak to her. Mrs. Leigh might, on some plea, ask to see her, ask to be allowed to roll her invalid chair into the room, and then she would find the tenant of it dressed for out of doors, the bed untossed, the floor littered with the scattered contents of her trunk, the wet bedraggled clothes and boots she had taken off. There was nothing for her to do but to remain perfectly still. She was not listening, in the mean or hateful sen