What the
poor girl must have suffered, I could but too readily understand, on
recalling the startling changes in her look and manner when we met at the
river-margin of the wood. She was pledged to secrecy, under penalty of
ruining the man who was trying to save me; and to her presence of mind
was trusted the whole responsibility of preserving my life. What a
situation for a girl of eighteen!
"We made it out between us, sir, in two ways," Gloody proceeded. "First
and foremost, she was to invite herself to tea. And, being at the table,
she was to watch my master. Whatever she saw him drink, she was to insist
on your drinking it too. You heard me ask leave to make the tea?"
"Yes."
"Well, that was one of the signals agreed on between us. When he sent me
away, we were certain of what he had it in his mind to do."
"And when you looked at Miss Cristel, and she was too busy with her
brooch to notice you, was that another signal?"
"It was, sir. When she handled her silver ornament, she told me that I
might depend on her to forget nothing, and to be afraid of nothing."
I remembered the quiet firmness in her face, after the prayer that she
had said in her own room. Her steady resolution no longer surprised me.
"Did you wonder, sir, what possessed her," Gloody went on, "when she
burst out singing? That was a signal to me. We wanted him out of our way,
while you were made to drink what he had drunk out of the jug.
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