The only words that could be caught by Anne Seaway, confused as her hearing frequently was by the moan of the wind and the waterfall in her outer ear, were these of Miss Aldclyffe, in tones which absolutely quivered:  ‘They have no money.  What can they prove?’

The listener tasked herself to the utmost to catch his answer, but it was in vain.  Of the remainder of the colloquy one fact alone was plain to Anne, and that only inductively—­that Miss Aldclyffe, from what he had revealed to her, was going to scheme body and soul on Manston’s behalf.

Miss Aldclyffe seemed now to have no further reason for remaining, yet she lingered awhile as if loth to leave him.  When, finally, the crestfallen and agitated lady made preparations for departure, Anne quickly inserted the bolt, ran round to the entrance archway, and down the steps into the park.  Here she stood close to the trunk of a huge lime-tree, which absorbed her dark outline into its own.

In a few minutes she saw Manston, with Miss Aldclyffe leaning on his arm, cross the glade before her and proceed in the direction of the house.  She watched them ascend the rise and advance, as two black spots, towards the mansion.  The appearance of an oblong space of light in the dark mass of walls denoted that the door was opened.  Miss Aldclyffe’s outline became visible upon it; the door shut her in, and all was darkness again.  The form of Manston returning alone arose from the gloom, and passed by Anne in her hiding-place.

Waiting outside a quarter of an hour longer, that no suspicion of any kind might be excited, Anne returned to the old manor-house.

4.  FROM EIGHT TO ELEVEN O’CLOCK P.M.

Manston was very friendly that evening.  It was evident to her, now that she was behind the scenes, that he was making desperate efforts to disguise the real state of his mind.

Her terror of him did not decrease.  They sat down to supper, Manston still talking cheerfully.  But what is keener than the eye of a mistrustful woman?  A man’s cunning is to it as was the armour of Sisera to the thin tent-nail.  She found, in spite of his adroitness, that he was attempting something more than a disguise of his feeling.  He was trying to distract her attention, that he might be unobserved in some special movement of his hands.

What a moment it was for her then!  The whole surface of her body became attentive.  She allowed him no chance whatever.  We know the duplicated condition at such times—­when the existence divides itself into two, and the ostensibly innocent chatterer stands in front, like another person, to hide the timorous spy.

Manston played the same game, but more palpably.  The meal was nearly over when he seemed possessed of a new idea of how his object might be accomplished.  He tilted back his chair with a reflective air, and looked steadily at the clock standing against the wall opposite to him.  He said sententiously, ’Few faces are capable of expressing more by dumb show than the face of a clock.  You may see in it every variety of incentive—­from the softest seductions to negligence to the strongest hints for action.’