Edwin Brothertoft/Part III Chapter XV

Chapter XV.
Half past eight, and the two majors still sat vis-à-vis in the dining-room.

“I am tired of this,” thought Skerrett. “I have had enough of swallowing bumpers to this fellow’s ‘buppers.’ I have heard enough of his foulness, his boasts, and his drivel. I could never have been patient so long except for the lady’s sake. Every word and look of his is an imperative command to me to make sure of her safety. Yes, yes, Voltaire! You needn’t nod and wink that she is ready and anxious. Ten minutes more, to be positive that my men are come, — and then, Major, please the Goddess of Liberty, I’ll forbid your banns, and walk off with your person. I’m sorry for you, brute as you are. And you will not like your wineless quarters with Old Put.”

Monstrous long minutes, those final ten! At the rate of a thousand a minute, shades of doubt drifted across Peter’s mind.

Who has not known suspense and its miseries? — something hanging over him by a hair, or he hanging by a hair over nothing. Patience, Peter Skerrett! The pendulum ticks. It checks off the minutes, surely.

And while those minutes pass, tipsy Jierck Dewitt is at work in the cellar, trying to drown the misery that this guilty house has caused him.

The ten were almost ended, when Brothertoft started to search for the stray leader, that other victim of a woman’s disloyalty.

It was in the very last of the ten that Mrs. Brothertoft turned suddenly and saw an unknown face staring in at her, as she sat in the dusky parlor.

Time was up. Major Skerrett walked quietly to the window, threw up the sash, opened the shutters, and whistled in his men.

Three only came leaping in at the summons.