"Adeline, you might see where Jerrold is."
She went into the house and saw Anne and Jerrold coming slowly down the
stairs together from the gallery. At the turn they stopped and looked at
each other, and suddenly he had her in his arms. They kissed, with
close, quick kisses and then stood apart, listening.
Adeline went back. "The monkey," she thought; "and I who told her she
didn't know how to do it."
Jerrold ran out, very red in the face and defiant. He gave himself to
his mother's large embrace, broke from it, and climbed into the dogcart.
The mare bounded forward, Jerrold and Eliot raised their hats, shouted
and were gone.
Adeline watched while the long lines of the beech-trees narrowed on
them, till the dogcart swung out between the ball-topped pillars of the
Park gates.
Last time their going had been nothing to her. Today she could hardly
bear it. She wondered why.
She turned and found little Anne standing beside her. They moved
suddenly apart. Each had seen the other's tears.
xiii Outside Colin's window the tree rocked in the wind. A branch brushed
backwards and forwards, it tapped on the pane. Its black shadow shook on
the grey, moonlit wall.
Jerrold's empty bed showed white and dreadful in the moonlight, covered
with a sheet. Colin was frightened.
A narrow passage divided his room from Anne's. The doors stood open. He
called "Anne! Anne!"
A light thud on the floor of Anne's room, then the soft padding of naked
feet, and Anne stood beside him in her white nightgown. Her hair rose in
a black ruff round her head, her eyes were very black in the sharp
whiteness of her face.
"Are you frightened, Colin?"
"No. I'm not exactly frightened, but I think there's something there."
"It's nothing. Only the tree."
"I mean--in Jerry's bed."
"Oh no, Colin."
"Dare you," he said, "sit on it?"
"Of course I dare. _Now_ you see. _Now_ you won't be frightened."
"You know," Colin said, "I don't mind a bit when Jerrold's there. The
ghosts never come then, because he frightens them away."
The clock struck ten. They counted the strokes. Anne still sat on
Jerrold's bed with her knees drawn up to her chin and her arms clasped
round them.
"I'll tell you a secret," Colin said. "Only you mustn't tell."
"I won't."
"Really and truly?"
"Really and truly."