Wilfrid Cumbermede Part 54

'It is much larger than any of these,' she said.

'Then do let us have it for the library, Sir Giles,' I entreated.

'I will see what Lady Brotherton says,' he replied, and left the room.

In a few minutes we heard his step returning.

'Lady Brotherton has no particular objection to giving up the room you want,' he said. 'Will you see Mrs Wilson, Clara, and arrange with her for your accommodation?'

'With pleasure. I don't mind where I'm put--unless it be in Lord Edward's room--where the ghost is.'

'You mean the one next to ours? There is no ghost there, I a.s.sure you,'

said Sir Giles, laughing, as he again left the room with short, heavy steps. 'Manage it all to your own mind, Mr c.u.mbermede. I shall be satisfied,' he called back as he went.

'Until further notice,' I said, with grandiloquence, 'I request that no one may come into this room. If you are kind enough to a.s.sort the books we put up yesterday, oblige me by going through the armoury. I must find Mrs Wilson.'

'I will go with you,' said Clara. 'I wonder where the old thing will want to put me. I'm not going where I don't like, I can tell her,' she added, following me down the stair and across the hall and the court.

We found the housekeeper in her room. I accosted her in a friendly way.

She made but a bare response.

'Would you kindly show me where I slept that night I lost my sword, Mrs Wilson?' I said.

'I know nothing about your sword, Mr c.u.mbermede,' she answered, shaking her head and pursing up her mouth.

'I don't ask you anything about it, Mrs Wilson; I only ask you where I slept the night I lost it.'

'Really, Mr c.u.mbermede, you can hardly expect me to remember in what room a visitor slept--let me see--it must be twelve or fifteen years ago! I do not take it upon me.'

'Oh! never mind, then. I referred to the circ.u.mstances of that night, thinking they might help you to remember the room; but it is of no consequence; I shall find it for myself. Miss Coningham will, I hope, help me in the search. She knows the house better than I do.'

'I must attend to my own business first, if you please, sir,' said Clara. 'Mrs Wilson, I am ordered out of my room by Mr c.u.mbermede. You must find me fresh quarters, if you please.'

Mrs Wilson stared.

'Do you mean, miss, that you want your things moved to another bed-room?'

'That _is_ what I mean, Mrs Wilson.'

'I must see what Lady Brotherton says to it, miss.'

'Do, by all means.'

I saw that Clara was bent on annoying her old enemy, and interposed.

'Sir Giles and Lady Brotherton have agreed to let me have Miss Coningham's room for an addition to the library, Mrs Wilson,' I said.

She looked very grim, but made no answer. We turned and left her. She stood for a moment as if thinking, and then, taking down her bunch of keys, followed us.

'If you will come this way,' she said, stopping just behind us at another door in the court, 'I think I can show you the room you want.

But really, Mr c.u.mbermede, you are turning the place upside down. If I had thought it would come to this--'

'I hope to do so a little more yet, Mrs Wilson,' I interrupted. 'But I am sure you will be pleased with the result.'

She did not reply, but led the way up a stair, across the little open gallery, and by pa.s.sages I did not remember, to the room I wanted. It was in precisely the same condition as when I occupied it.

'This is the room, I believe,' she said, as she unlocked and threw open the door. 'Perhaps it would suit you, Miss Coningham?'

'Not in the least,' answered Clara. 'Who knows which of my small possessions might vanish before the morning!'

The housekeeper's face grew turkey-red with indignation.

'Mr c.u.mbermede has been filling your head with some of his romances, I see, Miss Clara!'

I laughed, for I did not care to show myself offended with her rudeness.

'Never you mind,' said Clara; 'I am _not_ going to sleep there.'

'Very good,' said Mrs Wilson, in a tone of offence severely restrained.

'Will you show me the way to the library?' I requested.

'I will,' said Clara; 'I know it as well as Mrs Wilson--every bit.'

'Then that is all I want at present, Mrs Wilson,' I said, as we came out of the room. 'Don't lock the door, though, please,' I added. 'Or, if you do, give me the key.'

She left the door open, and us in the pa.s.sage. Clara led me to the library. There we found Charley waiting our return.

'Will you take that little boy to his mother, Clara?' I said. 'I don't want him here to-day. We'll have a look over those papers in the evening, Charley.'

'That's right,' said Clara. 'I hope Charley will help you to a little rational interest in your own affairs. I am quite bewildered to think that an author, not to say a young man, the sole remnant of an ancient family, however humble, shouldn't even know whether he had any papers in the house or not.'

'We've come upon a glorious nest of such addled eggs, Clara. Charley and I are going to blow them to-night,' I said.

'You never know when such eggs are addled,' retorted Clara. 'You'd better put them under some sensible fowl or other first,' she added, looking back from the door as they went.

I turned to the carpenter's tool-basket, and taking from it an old chisel, a screw-driver, and a pair of pincers, went back to the room we had just left.

There could be no doubt about it. There was the tip of the dog's tail, and the top of the hunter's crossbow.

But my reader may not have retained in her memory the facts to which I implicitly refer. I would therefore, to spare repet.i.tion, beg her to look back to chapter xiv., containing the account of the loss of my sword.

In the consternation caused me by the discovery that this loss was no dream of the night, I had never thought of examining the wall of the chamber, to see whether there was in it a door or not; but I saw now at once plainly enough that the inserted patch did cover a small door.

Opening it, I found within, a creaking wooden stair, leading up to another low door, which, fas.h.i.+oned like the door of a companion, opened upon the roof:--nowhere, except in the towers, had the Hall more than two stories. As soon as I had drawn back the bolt and stepped out, I found myself standing at the foot of an ornate stack of chimneys, and remembered quite well having tried the door that night Clara and I were shut out on the leads--the same night on which my sword was stolen.

For the first time the question now rose in my mind whether Mrs Wilson could have been in league with Mr Close. Was it likely I should have been placed in a room so entirely fitted to his purposes by accident?

But I could not imagine any respectable woman running such a risk of terrifying a child out of his senses, even if she could have connived at his being robbed of what she might well judge unsuitable for his possession.