CHAPTER IV—­MINGLING THREADS

It was nearly seven before Mr. Archer left his apartment.  On the landing he found another door beside his own opening on a roofless corridor, and presently he was walking on the top of the ruins.  On one hand he could look down a good depth into the green court-yard; on the other his eye roved along the downward course of the river, the wet woods all smoking, the shadows long and blue, the mists golden and rosy in the sun, here and there the water flashing across an obstacle.  His heart expanded and softened to a grateful melancholy, and with his eye fixed upon the distance, and no thought of present danger, he continued to stroll along the elevated and treacherous promenade.

A terror-stricken cry rose to him from the courtyard.  He looked down, and saw in a glimpse Nance standing below with hands clasped in horror and his own foot trembling on the margin of a gulf.  He recoiled and leant against a pillar, quaking from head to foot, and covering his face with his hands; and Nance had time to run round by the stair and rejoin him where he stood before he had changed a line of his position.

‘Ah!’ he cried, and clutched her wrist; ’don’t leave me.  The place rocks; I have no head for altitudes.’

‘Sit down against that pillar,’ said Nance.  ’Don’t you be afraid; I won’t leave you, and don’t look up or down:  look straight at me.  How white you are!’

‘The gulf,’ he said, and closed his eyes again and shuddered.

‘Why,’ said Nance, ’what a poor climber you must be!  That was where my cousin Dick used to get out of the castle after Uncle Jonathan had shut the gate.  I’ve been down there myself with him helping me.  I wouldn’t try with you,’ she said, and laughed merrily.

The sound of her laughter was sincere and musical, and perhaps its beauty barbed the offence to Mr. Archer.  The blood came into his face with a quick jet, and then left it paler than before.  ’It is a physical weakness,’ he said harshly, ’and very droll, no doubt, but one that I can conquer on necessity.  See, I am still shaking.  Well, I advance to the battlements and look down.  Show me your cousin’s path.’

‘He would go sure-foot along that little ledge,’ said Nance, pointing as she spoke; ’then out through the breach and down by yonder buttress.  It is easier coming back, of course, because you see where you are going.  From the buttress foot a sheep-walk goes along the scarp—­see, you can follow it from here in the dry grass.  And now, sir,’ she added, with a touch of womanly pity, ’I would come away from here if I were you, for indeed you are not fit.’

Sure enough Mr. Archer’s pallor and agitation had continued to increase; his cheeks were deathly, his clenched fingers trembled pitifully.  ‘The weakness is physical,’ he sighed, and had nearly fallen.  Nance led him from the spot, and he was no sooner back in the tower-stair, than he fell heavily against the wall and put his arm across his eyes.  A cup of brandy had to be brought him before he could descend to breakfast; and the perfection of Nance’s dream was for the first time troubled.