Oldal 238 [238]
OCR
180 sickness, the rigid face of the corpse, and the calm sleep of the child—midnight was upon them all. The hour had not struck two minutes, when a voung lady, accompanied by a rey-haired gentleman, alighted from a Radi asy-tavrave within a short distance of the bridge, and, having dismissed the vehicle, walked straight towards it. They had scarcely set foot upon the pavement, when the girl started, and immediately made towards them. They walked onwards, looking about them with the air of persons who entertained some very slight expectation which had little chance of being realized, when they were suddenly joined by this new associate. They halted with an exclamation of surprise, but suppressed it immediately, for a man in the garments of a countryman came close up — brushed against them indeed—at that precise moment. — s: Not here,” said Nancy, hurriedly. * T am afraid to speak to you here. Come away—out of the public road—down the steps yonder.” As she uttered these words, and indieated with her hand the direction in which she wished them to proceed, the countryman looked round, and roughly asking what they took up the whole pavement for, passed on. . The steps to which the gir) had pointed were those which, on the Surrey bank and on the same side of the bridge as Saint Saviour’s church, form a landingstairs from the river. To this spot the man, hastened unobserved; and after a moment’s survey of the place, he began . to descend. These stairs are a part of the bridge; they consist of three flights. Just below the end of the second going down, the stone wall on the left terminates in an ornamental pilaster, facing towards the Thames. At this point the lower steps widen, so that a person turning that angle of the wall is necessarily unseen by any others on the stairs who chance to be above him, if only a step. Noah looked hastily round when he reached this point, and as there seemed no better place of concealment, and, the tide being out, there was plenty of room, he slipped aside, with his back to the pilaster, and there waited, pretty certain that they would come no lower, and that even if he could not hear what was said, he could follow them again with safety. place, and so eager was the spy to penetrate the motives of an interview so different from what he had been led to expect, that he more than once gave the matter up for lost, and persuaded himself either they had stopped far above, or resorted to some entirely different spot to hold their mysterious conversation. He was on the very point of emerging from his hiding-place, and regaining the road above, when he heard the sound of footand directly afterwards of voices almost close to his ear. He drew himself straight upright against the wall, and scarcely breathing, listened attentively. | ‘This is far enough,” said a voice which was evidently that of the gentleman. “I will not suffer the young lady to go any further. Many people would have distrusted you too much to have come even so far, but you see Í am willing to humour you.” 4 To humour me!” cried the voice of the girl whom he had followed. “ You’re considerate, indeed, sir. " To humour me!’ Well, well, it’s no matter.” “ Why; for what, "—said the gentleman, in a kinder tone, “ for what purpose can you have brought us to this strange place? Why not have let me speak to you above there, where it is light, and there is something stirring, instead of bringing us to this dark and dismal hole?" : | “T told you before,” replied Nancy, “that I was afraid to speak to you there. I don’t know why it is,” said the girl shuddering, “but I have such a fear and dread upon me to-night that I can hardly stand.” “ A fear of what?” asked the man, who seemed to pity her. c [ scarcely know of what,” replied the girl. “I wish I did. Horrible thoughts of death, and shrouds with blood upon them, and a fear that has made me burn as if I was on fire, have been upon me all day. J was reading a book to-night to while the time away, and the same things came into the print.” “ Tmagination,” said the gentleman, soothing her. s No imagination,” replied the girl in a hoarse voice. “I’ll swear I saw ‘cof: fin’ written in every page of the book in large black letters—ay, and they carried one close to me in the streets tonight.” “There is nothing unusual] in that,” said the gentleman. " They have passed gentle
