Page:The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (emended first edition), Volume 2.djvu/298

288 words; but Mr. Hargrave followed me into the ante-room, and before I could open its outer door, gently laid his hand upon the lock.

"May I tell you something, Mrs. Huntingdon?" said he, in a subdued tone, with serious downcast eyes.

"If it be anything worth hearing," replied I, struggling to be composed, for I trembled in every limb.

He quietly pushed a chair towards me. I merely leant my hand upon it, and bid him go on.

"Do not be alarmed," said he: "what I wish to say is nothing in itself; and I will leave you to draw your own inferences from it. You say that Annabella is not yet returned?"

"Yes, yes—go on!" said I, impatiently, for I feared my forced calmness would leave me before the end of his disclosure, whatever it might be.

"And you hear," continued he, "that Huntingdon is gone out with Grimsby?"

"Well?"