Even
when they could separate these objects from the phantoms of the mind
which they invoked, the latter only glided out of sight, but lingered
near them still; for then they seemed to lurk in closets and behind the
doors, ready to start out and suddenly accost them in well-remembered
tones.
They went downstairs, and again into the room they had just now left.
Mr Haredale unbuckled his sword and laid it on the table, with a pair of
pocket pistols; then told the locksmith he would light him to the door.
'But this is a dull place, sir,' said Gabriel lingering; 'may no one
share your watch?'
He shook his head, and so plainly evinced his wish to be alone, that
Gabriel could say no more. In another moment the locksmith was standing
in the street, whence he could see that the light once more travelled
upstairs, and soon returning to the room below, shone brightly through
the chinks of the shutters.
If ever man were sorely puzzled and perplexed, the locksmith was, that
night. Even when snugly seated by his own fireside, with Mrs Varden
opposite in a nightcap and night-jacket, and Dolly beside him (in a
most distracting dishabille) curling her hair, and smiling as if she had
never cried in all her life and never could--even then, with Toby at
his elbow and his pipe in his mouth, and Miggs (but that perhaps was not
much) falling asleep in the background, he could not quite discard his
wonder and uneasiness.
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