And what had been the answer, wrung from her finally by his
insistence--the answer to which he had at first violently dissented,
and then reluctantly agreed?
No doubt, if these people had been garbed in the clothes of every day,
I should have felt at the outset that all this was none of my
business, and have crept down the ladder and gone away. But their
strange dress gave to the scene an air at once unreal and theatrical,
and not for an instant had I felt myself an intruder. It was as though
I were looking at the rehearsal of a drama designed for the public
gaze and enacted upon a stage; or, more properly, a pantomime, dim and
figurative, but most impressive. Might it not, indeed, be a rehearsal
of some sort--private theatricals--make-believe? But that scene at
midnight--that could not be make-believe! No, nor was this scene in
the garden. It was in earnest--in deadliest earnest; there was about
it something sinister and threatening; and it was the realisation of
this--the realisation that there was something here not right,
something demanding scrutiny--which kept me chained to my
uncomfortable perch, minute after minute.
Pages:
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36