Part 17 (1/2)
”You will say nothing, do nothing, see nothing. We cannot marry and starve.”
”But tell me, Kate--honour bright--you don't care for this Capel?”
”I care for him!”
”Tell me, then, what do you mean to do?”
”Have my share of that money,” said Katrine, with a peculiar hardening of her face.
”Bah! I don't believe the treasure ever existed. It was a craze on the old man's part.”
”You must be careful. Don't say or do anything to annoy Paul Capel or Mr Girtle. We must stay here. It was no craze on the old man's part; maybe I can tell where the fortune is.”
”What? You mean that?”
”Hus.h.!.+ I am working for us both.”
”But tell me--”
”Hus.h.!.+ She has finished the song,” said Katrine, leaning back and clapping her hands softly. ”Thank you, thank you,” she said. ”Oh, what a while it is since I heard that dear old ballad.”
The evening wore away till bed-time, when the butler brought in and lit the candles, according to his custom, Katrine and Lydia taking theirs, and going at once, and Gerard Artis following after partaking of a gla.s.s of soda-water, leaving the old lawyer and Capel together.
They sat in silence for some minutes, when the old lawyer said:
”I do not seem to get any nearer to the unravelling of this knot, Mr Capel.”
”Do you still adhere to the opinion that the treasure was there?”
”Yes; and we shall find it soon.”
”By a masterly inactivity?”
”Oh, no,” replied the old man, ”for I am taking steps of my own to redeem myself. I don't think those jewels can be sold, or one of those notes changed, without word being brought to me.”
Capel felt won by the old man's manner. He shook hands with him warmly, and said ”Good-night.”
He went to the door with him, and saw the light s.h.i.+ne on the thin, silvery hair as he went slowly up the staircase, while his candle cast a grotesque shadow on the wall. Then, as Capel listened, he heard the old man shut his chamber door, open it softly, and shut it again more loudly; while, with the great house seeming to be doubly steeped in darkness and silence, Paul Capel went back to the lounge in which he had been seated, leaving his chamber candle burning like a tiny star in the great sea of gloom, and sat back, thinking.
The candle burned lower as he thought on, ransacking his memory for some slight clue that would help him to find his lost fortune.
The candle went out.
Had he been asleep?
He could not say. He believed that he had been only thinking deeply.
At all events, he was widely awake now, as he sat back listening to the heavy beating of his own heart, as he stared through the intense darkness towards the door, upon whose panel he had felt sure he had heard a soft pat, as if something had touched it.