"
He threw open the door, and bowed as graciously as if he had been a
sovereign dismissing a subject.
Was he mad?
I hesitated to adopt that conclusion. There is no denying it, the deaf
man had found his own strange and tortuous way to my interest, in spite
of myself. I might even have been in some danger of allowing him to make
a friend of me, if I had not been restrained by the fears for Cristel
which his language and his manner amply justified, to my mind. Although I
was far from foreseeing the catastrophe that really did happen, I felt
that I had returned to my own country at a critical time in the life of
the miller's daughter. My friendly interference might be of serious
importance to Cristel's peace of mind--perhaps even to her personal
safety as well.
Eager to discover what the contents of the portfolio might tell me, I
hurried back to Trimley Deen. My stepmother had not yet returned from the
dinner-party. As one of the results of my ten years' banishment from
home, I was obliged to ask the servant to show me the way to my own room,
in my own house! The windows looked out on a view of Fordwitch Wood. As I
opened the leaves which were to reveal to me the secret soul of the man
whom I had so strangely met, the fading moonlight vanished, and the
distant trees were lost in the gloom of a starless night.
CHAPTER V
HE BETRAYS HIMSELF
The confession was entitled, "Memoirs of a Miserable Man.
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