question?" I said, in a low voice.
Then almost at the same moment we were both startled by hearing a lowtapping upon my door.
Eric and I turned and looked inquiringly at each other.
"It's Budd, your man, I expect," he whispered. "He must not see me.Perhaps he's heard of the affair and come to tell you. Look, I'll getin there," and springing across to a big old-fashioned oak wardrobe heslipped inside and I closed the door noiselessly.
Then, quick as thought, I swept up the letters and other articles uponthe table, placed them in one of the drawers, and stood awaiting afurther summons.
In a moment the low tapping was repeated.
"Who's there?" I inquired, crossing and drawing aside the heavy_portiere_.
"Wilfrid!" whispered a low voice. "Can you see me? I must speak withyou at once."
I started as though I had received a blow. It was Sybil herself!
CHAPTER SIX.
CONTAINS A CURIOUS CONFESSION.
I unlocked the door, and opening it, met the love of my youth standingthere in the darkness.
"Wilfrid!" she gasped, in a low whisper, "I--I want to speak to you.Forgive me, but it is very urgent. Come along here--into the blue room.Come, there is no time to lose."
Thus impelled, I followed her along the corridor to the smallsitting-room at the end, where she had apparently left her candle.
By its light I saw that she was dressed in a black tailor-made gown, andthat her face was white and haggard. She closed the door, and noticingthat I was still dressed, said,--
"Have you only just come up to bed?"
"Yes," was my answer. "Eric and I have been gossiping. The others wentup long ago, but he began telling me some of his African yarns."
"But everyone is in bed now?" she inquired, quickly.
"Of course," I answered, wondering why she had come to me thus, in themiddle of the night. She had changed her dinner-gown for a walkingdress, but there was still the bow of blue velvet in her gold-brown hairwhich she had apparently forgotten to remove.
"Wilfrid!" she said, in a low, hard voice, suddenly grasping both myhands. "Although you refused to marry me you are still my friend, areyou not?"
"Your friend! Of course I am," I answered rather hoarsely. "Did I nottell you so before dinner?"
"I know you did, but--" and she dropped her fine eyes, still holding myhands in hers. Her own hands trembled, and apparently she dared notlook me full in the face.
"But what--?" I asked. "What troubles you? Why are you dressed likethis?"
"I--I have been very foolish," she whispered. "I am, after all, awoman, and very weak. Ah! Wilfrid--if I only dare tell you the truth--if I only dare?" she gasped, and I saw how terribly agitated she was.
"Why not? Why not confide in me?" I urged, seriously. "I can keep asecret, you know."
"No, no," she cried. "How can I? No, I only beg and implore of you tohelp me, and not to misjudge me."
"Misjudge you, why? I don't understand," I said, in pretence ofignorance.
"Ah! of course not. But to-morrow you will know everything, and--" butshe did not conclude her sentence.
There was a change in her countenance, and I saw that she was fainting.I drew her to a big armchair, and a second later she sank into itunconscious.
Next instant I dashed along to my room for the water-bottle, whisperedto Eric what had taken place and ran back to assist my little friend.
Ten minutes later she opened her eyes again and gazed steadily at thecandle. Then, finding me at her side, she whispered,--
"Yes, ah--yes, I remember. How very foolish I have been. Forgive me,Wilfrid, won't you? I miscalculated my strength. I thought myselfstronger," and her soft hand again sought mine, and she looked into myeyes steadily, with a long, earnest gaze.
"You are in distress, Tibbie," I said, as kindly as I could. "What isit? How can I help you?"
"You can save me," she said in an intense, earnest voice. "You can savemy life if you will."
"If I will? Why, of course I will," was my quick response.
"Then you will really help me?"
"Only tell me what you wish me to do and I'll do it at once," I replied.
"You will have no fear?"
"Fear of what?"
"Well," she exclaimed, hesitating, "suppose you were suspected ofsomething--that the police believed you to be guilty of a crime?"
"Guilty of a crime?" I echoed, with a forced smile. "Well, they mightsuspect whatever they like, so long as I was innocent."
"Then you are really prepared to bear any suspicion if it would be formy salvation?"
"Have I not already said that I am quite ready to help you, Tibbie?"
"Ah, yes, because you do not yet realise your grave peril," she said."If only I dare be frank with you--if only I dare tell you the awful,bitter truth! Yet I can't, and you must remain in ignorance. Your veryignorance will cause you to court danger, and at the same time tomisjudge me."
"I shall not misjudge you," I assured her. "But at the present I am, asyou say, entirely in the dark. What is it you want me to do?"
For a moment she was silent, apparently fearing to make the suggestionlest I should refuse. At last she looked straight into my face andsaid,--
"What I ask you to do is to make a great sacrifice in order to save me.I am in peril, Wilfrid, in a grave, terrible peril. The sword of fatehangs over me, and may fall at any instant. I must fly from here--Imust fly to-night and hide--I--"
She hesitated again. Her words were an admission of her guilt. She wasa murderess. That unknown man that I had left lying cold and deadbeneath the trees had fallen by her hand.
"Well?" I asked, rather coldly, I fear.
"I must hide. I must efface my identity, and for certain reasons--indeed to obtain greater security I must marry."
"Marry!" I echoed. "Well, really, Sybil, I don't understand you in theleast. Why?"
"Because I can, I hope, save myself by marrying," she went on quickly."To-night I am going into hiding, and not a soul must know of mywhereabouts. The place best of all in which to hide oneself is London,in one of the populous working districts. They would never search forme there. As the wife of an industrious working-man I should be safe.To go abroad would be useless."
"But why should you leave so hurriedly?" I asked her.
"Ah! you will know in due course," was her answer. "Ask me no questionsnow, only help me to escape."
"How?"
"Listen, and I will tell you of the plans I have formed. To-night Ihave thought it all out, and have made resolve. The car is in the shedover against the kennels. I backed it in yesterday, therefore it willrun down the hill along the avenue, and right out through the lodgegates without petrol and noiselessly. Once in the Chichester road, Ican drive it away without awakening either the house or the Grants whokeep the gate. You'll come with me."
"Where?"
"To London."
"And what would people say when it was known that you and I lefttogether in the middle of the night?"
"Oh! they'd only say it was one of Tibbie's mad freaks. It is usefulsometimes," she added, "to have a reputation for eccentricity. It savesso many explanations."
"Yes, that's all very well, but it is not a judicious course in anyway."
Suddenly I recollected the woman Mason whom I saw at all costs must begot out of the way. As a servant she might get a view of the dead manout of curiosity and identify him as her mistress's lover.
"No," I added, after a moment's reflection. "If you really want toescape to London go in exactly the opposite direction. Run across theNew Forest to Bournemouth, for instance. Take Mason with you. Go tothe Bath Hotel, and then slip away by train say up to Birmingham, andfrom there to London."
"Yes, but I can't take Mason. She must remain in ignorance. She knowsfar too much of my affairs already."
"Well, I can't go with you. It would be madness. And you cannot goalone."
She was silent, her lips pressed together, her brows knit. Hercountenance was hard and troubled, and there was a look of unmistakableterror in those wonderful eyes of hers.
"And if I act on your advice, Wilfrid, will you meet me in secret inLondon to-morrow or the next day?"
"Certainly. I will do all I can to help you--only accept my advice andtake Mason with you. Mislead her, just as you are misleading everyone."
"You will not think ill of me if I ask you something?" she said,seriously, looking very earnestly up into my
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