WHAT SHE WANTED HIM TO DO.
"Well, I want you to rent this house."
Craven Kyte started with surprise and looked at the speaker.
She went on, however, regardless of his astonishment.
"And I want you to purchase furniture enough to fit up one room for
yourself; and I want you to do that the first thing to-morrow. And I
want you to lodge here alone, while you remain in Richmond."
He still stared at her in amazement, but with no sign of a wish to
disobey her strange commands.
She went on with her instructions.
"You can walk into the city, and take your meals at any restaurant you
please; but you must lodge here alone while you stay in the city."
"I will do so," he answered, earnestly, as he recovered the use of his
tongue--"I will do anything you tell me. I am entirely under your
orders."
"You are the best fellow in the whole world, and I love the very ground
you walk on!" exclaimed the traitress, warmly.
He grasped her hand convulsively and pressed it to his lips, and then
waited her further directions.
"To reward you I will come out here every morning and spend the whole
day with you."
"Oh, that will be heavenly! I should be willing to live in a cave on
such delightful conditions!"
"But mind, my dearest one, you must not come to see me at my
boarding-house, or try to meet me, or to speak to me, after to-day,
anywhere where I am known," added Mrs. Grey, gravely.
"Oh, that seems very hard!" sighed the victim, with a look of grief,
almost of suspicion.
"Why should it seem hard, when I tell you that I will come out here
every morning to spend the whole day with you?" inquired Mrs. Grey.
"But why, then, can I not go home with you and spend the whole evening
in your company at your boarding-house?" pleaded the poor fellow.
"Because we should have no comfort at all in a whole parlor full of
company, as there is at the Misses Cranes' every evening. And because we
should be talked about in that gossiping boarding-house circle. And,
finally, because I should much rather stay with you alone here in this
house, where there is no one to criticise us, as late every evening as I
possibly can, and let you walk home with me and leave me at the door at
bed-time. Now don't you think mine the better plan?"
"Oh, yes, indeed, if you really will spend the evenings with me also!"
"Why, certainly I will! And now let us walk on to church. And mind, you
must leave me at the church door and find a seat for yourself, while I
go to mine. After church I will come out here with you again and sit
with you all the evening. I have no doubt the good woman at the rustic
inn down the road will give us tea, as she gave us dinner," said the
beauty, as she arose and slipped her hand within her companion's arm.
They left the house together and walked on to the church.
And the programme for the afternoon and evening was carried on according
to the beautiful schemer's arrangement.
After the services were concluded they walked out to the suburban inn,
where the simple-minded hostess willingly agreed to furnish tea for such
a pious church-going brother and sister.
And when they had had this tea, Mary Grey, to beguile the landlady, took
her willing captive for a walk further out toward the country; and then
returning by a roundabout route, came to the vacant road-side cottage,
where, as the September evening was very warm, they sat under the
vine-clad porch until ten o'clock.
Then they walked back to the town together.
Craven Kyte took Mary Grey to the gate of her boarding-house, where, as
the place was silent and deserted, they paused for a few last words.
"Mind, the first thing you do to-morrow morning will be to go and find
the owner of the haunted house and rent it from him," said the widow.
"Yes," answered her white slave.
"And the next thing you do will be to go and buy the furniture necessary
to fit up one room for yourself, and have it taken out there and
arranged."
"Yes," he answered again, very submissively.
"That will take you nearly all day, I think."
"I will hurry through the business as fast as I can, so that I may see
you the sooner. When can I see you to-morrow?" he pleaded.
"At seven o'clock to-morrow evening wait for me at the haunted house. I
will come and stay with you there until eleven."
"Oh, that is so long to wait! May I not see you sooner?"
"Impossible! I have a sacred duty to do to-morrow that will engage me
all day. But you too will be busy. And we can look forward all day to
our meeting in the evening. And after to-morrow we can meet every
morning and spend the whole day together," said the traitress, sweetly.
"I suppose I must be content!" sighed the victim.
"Now good-night, dear. And good-bye until to-morrow night," murmured the
siren, as she gave her lover a Judas kiss and dismissed him.
Mary Grey hurried into the drawing-room, where the Misses Crane were
still sitting up.
"My dear Mrs. Grey, we feared that something had happened to you," said
the elder Miss Crane.
"Oh, no! I went to see one of my Sunday-school pupils, whom I missed
from my class, and whom, upon inquiry, I found to be ill at home. I have
spent the whole day with the sick child, except the hours spent at
church. And I must go to see her again to-morrow morning," said the
widow, with a patient smile.
"How good you are!" murmured Miss Crane.
Mary Grey shook her head deprecatingly, bowed good-night to the slim
sisters and went upstairs to her own room.
Early the next morning Mary Grey, telling her hostesses that she was
then going to sit with the sick child, left the old manor-house and
walked rapidly to the railway station and took a ticket for Forestville,
a village about twenty miles from the city, on the Richmond and Wendover
Railroad.