“When I left here, I cut across into Bean lane, which is more private for me than this road,” proceeded Richard.  “Just as I got to that clump of trees—­you know it, Barbara—­I saw somebody coming toward me from a distance.  I stepped back behind the trunks of the trees, into the shade of the hedge, for I don’t care to be met, though I am disguised.  He came along the middle of the lane, going toward West Lynne, and I looked out upon him.  I knew him long before he was abreast of me; it was Thorn.”  Barbara made no comment; she was digesting the news.

“Every drop of blood within me began to tingle, and an impulse came upon me to spring upon him and accuse him of the murder of Hallijohn,” went on Richard, in the same excited manner.  “But I resisted it; or, perhaps, my courage failed.  One of the reproaches against me had used to be that I was a physical coward, you know, Barbara,” he added, in a tone of bitterness.  “In a struggle, Thorn would have had the best of it; he is taller and more powerful than I, and might have battered me to death.  A man who can commit one murder won’t hesitate at a second.”

“Richard, do you think you could have been deceived?” she urged.  “You had been talking of Thorn, and your thoughts were, naturally bearing upon him.  Imagination—­”

“Be still, Barbara,” he interrupted in a tone of pain.  “Imagination, indeed!  Did I not tell you he was stamped here?” touching his breast.  “Do you take me for a child, or an imbecile, that I should fancy I see Thorn in every shadow, or meet people where I do not?  He had his hat off, as if he had been walking fast and had got hot—­fast he was walking; and he carried the hat in one hand, and what looked like a small parcel.  With the other hand he was pushing the hair from his brow—­in this way—­a peculiar way,” added Richard, slightly lifting his own hat and pushing back his hair.  “By that action alone I should have known him, for he was always doing it in the old days.  And there was his white hand, adorned with his diamond ring!  Barbara, the diamond glittered in the moonlight!”

Richard’s voice and manner were singularly earnest, and a conviction of the truth of his assertion flashed over his sister.

“I saw his face as plainly as I ever saw it—­every feature—­he is scarcely altered, save for a haggardness in his cheeks now.  Barbara, you need not doubt me; I swear it was Thorn!”

She grew excited as he was; now that she believed the news, it was telling upon her; reason left its place and impulse succeeded; Barbara did not wait to weigh her actions.

“Richard!  Mr. Carlyle ought to know this.  He has but just gone; we may overtake him, if we try.”

Forgetting the strange appearances it would have—­her flying along the public road at that hour of the night—­should she meet any who knew her—­forgetting what the consequence might be, did Justice Hare return and find her absent, Barbara set off with a fleet foot, Richard more stealthily following her—­his eyes cast in all directions.  Fortunately Barbara wore a bonnet and mantle, which she had put on to pace the garden with Mr. Carlyle; fortunately, also, the road was remarkably empty of passengers.  She succeeded in reaching Mr. Carlyle before he turned into East Lynne gates.