Manston was very friendly that evening. It was evident to her, now
that she was behind the scenes, that he was making desperate efforts to
disguise the real state of his mind.
Her terror of him did not decrease. They sat down to supper, Manston
still talking cheerfully. But what is keener than the eye of a
mistrustful woman? A man’s cunning is to it as was the armour of Sisera
to the thin tent-nail. She found, in spite of his adroitness, that he
was attempting something more than a disguise of his feeling. He was
trying to distract her attention, that he might be unobserved in some
special movement of his hands.
What a moment it was for her then! The whole surface of her body became
attentive. She allowed him no chance whatever. We know the duplicated
condition at such times--when the existence divides itself into two, and
the ostensibly innocent chatterer stands in front, like another person,
to hide the timorous spy.
Manston played the same game, but more palpably. The meal was nearly
over when he seemed possessed of a new idea of how his object might be
accomplished. He tilted back his chair with a reflective air, and looked
steadily at the clock standing against the wall opposite to him. He said
sententiously, ‘Few faces are capable of expressing more by dumb
show than the face of a clock. You may see in it every variety of
incentive--from the softest seductions to negligence to the strongest
hints for action.’
‘Well, in what way?’ she inquired. His drift was, as yet, quite
unintelligible to her.
‘Why, for instance: look at the cold, methodical, unromantic,
business-like air of all the right-angled positions of the hands. They
make a man set about work in spite of himself. Then look at the piquant
shyness of its face when the two hands are over each other. Several
attitudes imply “Make ready.” The “make ready” of ten minutes to one
differs from the “make ready” of ten minutes to twelve, as youth differs
from age. “Upward and onward” says twenty-five minutes to eleven.
Mid-day or midnight expresses distinctly “It is done.” You surely have
noticed that?’
‘Yes, I have.’