"What sort of a gentleman is he? What does he look like?"
The orphan considered, silently chewing the cud.
"He looks," she opined deliberately, "as if he could give you _what
for_!"
At that, without one second's pause, I scuttled into my own room and
locked the door behind me. (I would have "locked and double locked" it,
as heroines of fiction do on such occasions, but it has always remained
a mystery to me how they manage to do it!) That being done I fell into
a chair, and breathlessly confronted--the worst!
It was the Squire! I knew it without a doubt. If the orphan had
devoted an hour to her description, she could not have been more apt.
In some mysterious way he had tracked me to my lair. I might have known
he would do it! He was not the sort of man to be daunted by a closed
door. He would put out the whole of his big, indomitable force, till by
hook or by crook it flew open, and the secret was revealed. Mercifully,
however, it was so far only Miss Harding whom he had discovered; Evelyn
Wastneys still eluded his grasp, and if I could summon enough nerve and
courage to carry through one final interview, all might yet be well. It
was useless to say I would not see him. He would simply wait until I
did. The only result would be to arouse his suspicions. I rose slowly
and confronted myself in the glass.
The disguise was good, but was it good enough? I hastily opened my
"make up" case, and accentuated the lines which the expert had shown
were most telling--the curve of the upper lip, the kink in the eyebrow,
the long wrinkle from nose to chin. I wrapped my Paisley scarf round my
shoulders, took my courage in both hands, and opened the door. I
decided to go into the dining-room, draw the casement curtains, seat
myself with my back to the light, and--send the orphan to summon him to
my presence! I was nervous and scared, but--let me confess it--the
moment was not without a fearful joy! My heart was beating with quick,
excited throbs. It was the oddest, most inexplicable thing, but I--I
really wanted to see him. If a wish could have spirited him away, I
could not have brought myself to breathe it. It seemed suddenly as if,
unknown to myself, I had missed him, been missing him for a long, long
time--
The door opened and he came in.