He
rose--purposeless it seemed--sat down again--drew out his watch almost
every minute, and answered remarks addressed to him in the wildest
manner. The decisive moment was, I saw, arrived, and at a gesture of
mine, Elsworthy, who was in my confidence, addressed Dutton. 'By the
way, Dutton, about Mrs Rivers and Annie. I forgot to tell you of it
before.'
The restless man was on his feet in an instant, and glaring with fiery
eagerness at the speaker.
'What! what!' he cried with explosive quickness--'what about Annie?
Death and fury!--speak! will you?'
'Don't alarm yourself, my good fellow. It's nothing of consequence.
You brought Annie and her governess, about an hour before I started,
to sleep at our house'----
'Yes--yes,' gasped Dutton, white as death, and every fibre of his body
shaking with terrible dread. 'Yes--well, well, go on. Thunder and
lightning! out with it, will you?'
'Unfortunately, two female cousins arrived soon after you went away,
and I was obliged to escort Annie and Mrs Rivers home again.' A wild
shriek--yell is perhaps the more appropriate expression--burst from
the conscience and fear-stricken man. Another instant, and he had torn
his watch from the fob, glanced at it with dilated eyes, dashed it on
the table, and was rushing madly towards the door, vainly withstood by
Elsworthy, who feared we had gone too far.
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