Once again the figure came forward, straight on to the table; and
then, so swift that not a motion or a word could check it, the
catastrophe fell.
There was a violent movement on Lady Laura's left hand, a chair shot
back and fell, and with a horrible tearing cry from the throat, the
boy dashed himself face forwards across the table, snatched at and for
an instant seized something real and concrete that stood there; and as
the two women sprang up, losing sight for an instant of the figure
that had been there a moment ago, the boy sank forward, moaning and
sobbing, and a crash as of a heavy body falling sounded from the
cabinet.
For a space of reckonable time there was complete silence. Then once
more a blast of wind tore up from the south-west, rain shattered
against the window, and the house vibrated to the shock.
_Chapter XIV_
I
As the date approached Maggie felt her anxieties settle down, like a
fire, from turbulence to steady flame. On the Sunday she had with real
difficulty kept it to herself, and the fringe of the storm of wind and
rain that broke over Herefordshire in the evening had not been
reassuring. Yet on one thing her will kept steady hold, and that was
that Mrs.
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