The Castle Inn | Page 5

emboldened by which,
yet avoiding their scope, pairs of lovers of the commoner class sneaked
to and fro under the trees. Whether the presence of these recalled early
memories which Sir George's fastidiousness found unpalatable, or he
felt his fashion, smirched by the vulgarity of this Venus-walk, his
impatience grew; and was not far from bursting forth when his guide
turned sharply into an alley behind the cathedral, and, after threading a
lane of mean houses, entered a small court.
The place, though poor and narrow, was not squalid. Sir George could
see so much by the light which shone from a window and fell on a
group of five or six persons, who stood about the nearest door and
talked in low, excited voices. He had a good view of one man's face,
and read in it gloom and anger. Then the group made way for the girl,
eyeing her, as he thought, with pity and a sort of deference; and cursing
the folly that had brought him into such a place and situation,
wondering what on earth it all meant or in what it would end, he

followed her into the house.
She opened a door on the right-hand side of the narrow passage, and
led the way into a long, low room. For a moment he saw no more than
two lights on a distant table, and kneeling at a chair beside them a
woman with grey dishevelled hair, who seemed to be praying, her face
hidden. Then his gaze, sinking instinctively, fell on a low bed between
him and the woman; and there rested on a white sheet, and on the
solemn outlines--so certain in their rigidity, so unmistakable by human
eyes--of a body laid out for burial.
CHAPTER II
A MISADVENTURE
To be brought up short in an amorous quest by such a sight as that was
a shock alike to Soane's better nature and his worse dignity. The former
moved him to stand silent and abashed, the latter to ask with an
indignant curse why he had been brought to that place. And the latter
lower instinct prevailed. But when he raised his head to put the
question with the necessary spirt of temper, he found that the girl had
left his side and passed to the other hand of the dead; where, the hood
thrown back from her face, she stood looking at him with such a
gloomy fire in her eyes as it needed but a word, a touch, a glance to
kindle into a blaze.
At the moment, however, he thought less of this than of the beauty of
the face which he saw for the first time. It was a southern face, finely
moulded, dark and passionate, full-lipped, yet wide of brow, with a
generous breadth between the eyes. Seldom had he seen a woman more
beautiful; and he stood silent, the words he had been about to speak
dying stillborn on his lips.
Yet she seemed to understand them; she answered them. 'Why have I
brought you here?' she cried, her voice trembling; and she pointed to
the bed. 'Because he is--he was my father. And he lies there. And
because the man who killed him goes free. And I would--I would kill
him! Do you hear me? I would kill him!'

Sir George tried to free his mind from the influence of her passion and
her eyes, from the nightmare of the room and the body, and to see
things in a sane light. 'But--my good girl,' he said, slowly and not
unkindly, 'I know nothing about it. Nothing. I am a stranger here.'
'For that reason I brought you here,' she retorted.
'But--I cannot interfere,' he answered, shaking his head. 'There is the
law. You must apply to it. The law will punish the man if he has done
wrong.'
'But the law will not punish him!' she cried with scorn. 'The law? The
law is your law, the law of the rich. And he'--she pointed to the
bed--'was poor and a servant. And the man who killed him was his
master. So he goes free--of the law!'
'But if he killed him?' Sir George muttered lamely.
'He did!' she cried between her teeth. 'And I would have you kill him!'
He shook his head. 'My good girl,' he said kindly, 'you are distraught.
You are not yourself. Or you would know a gentleman does not do
these things.'
'A gentleman!' she retorted, her smouldering rage flaming up at last.
'No; but I will tell you what he does. He kills a man to save his purse!
Or his honour! Or for a mis-word at cards! Or the lie given in drink! He
will run a man through in a dark room, with no one to see fair play!