Page:The Woman in White.djvu/514

 see me, and said I had forgotten something upstairs. As soon as I was out of the room I went down to the first landing and waited&mdash;I was determined to stop him if he tried to come upstairs. He made no such attempt. The girl from the shop came through the door into the passage, with his card in her hand&mdash;a large gilt card with his name, and a coronet above it, and these lines underneath in pencil: 'Dear lady' (yes! the villain could address me in that way still)&mdash;'dear lady, one word, I implore you, on a matter serious to us both.' If one can think at all, in serious difficulties, one thinks quick. I felt directly that it might be a fatal mistake to leave myself and to leave you in the dark, where such a man as the Count was concerned. I felt that the doubt of what he might do, in your absence, would be ten times more trying to me if I declined to see him than if I consented. 'Ask the gentleman to wait in the shop,' I said. 'I will be with him in a moment.' I ran upstairs for my bonnet, being determined not to let him speak to me indoors. I knew his deep ringing voice, and I was afraid Laura might hear it, even in the shop. In less than a minute I was down again in the passage, and had opened the door into the street. He came round to meet me from the shop. There he was in deep mourning, with his smooth bow and his deadly smile, and some idle boys and women near him, staring at his great size, his fine black clothes, and his large cane with the gold knob to it. All the horrible time at Blackwater came back to me the moment I set eyes on him. All the old loathing crept and crawled through me, when he took off his hat with a flourish and spoke to me, as if we had parted on the friendliest terms hardly a day since."

"You remember what he said?"

"I can't repeat it, Walter. You shall know directly what he said about you&mdash;-but I can't repeat what he said to me.  It was worse than the polite insolence of his letter.  My hands tingled to strike him, as if I had been a man! I only kept them quiet by tearing his card to pieces under my shawl.  Without saying a word on my side, I walked away from the house (for fear of Laura seeing us), and he followed, protesting softly all the way.  In the first by-street I turned, and asked him what he wanted with me.  He wanted two things.  First, if I had no objection, to express his sentiments.  I declined to hear them.  Secondly, to repeat the warning in his letter.  I asked, what occasion there was for repeating it.  He bowed and smiled, and said he would explain. The explanation exactly confirmed the fears I expressed before you