Page:Richard Marsh--The goddess a demon.djvu/65

Rh "Mr. Ferguson, can I speak to you for a minute, please?"

I went to her at once. I perceived that the news had reached her. Her first words showed it.

"You have heard, sir, of the dreadful thing which has happened to Mr. Lawrence?" "I have." "From what I'm told"—we were in a small room which served her as a sort of ante-chamber; she looked about her furtively, as if she feared that walls had ears; the hand which she had laid upon my arm was trembling—"from what I'm told it seems that it must have been done just before the young lady—came—to your room."

"Such seems to be the case, from what I'm told."

"What shall we do?"

"At present, nothing. 'Sufficient,' Mrs. Peddar, 'unto the day is the evil thereof.’"

"Do you think she knows?"

"Just now, I am sure that she does not."

She came closer, speaking almost in a whisper. Her lips were twitching. I have seldom seen a woman so disturbed.

"Do you think—she did it?"

"Mrs. Peddar! I have not yet found the key to the puzzle; but I am going to look for it, and I, or some one else, will find it soon. And of this