Here he halted a minute,
looking all ways. Then he stepped over the stile, crouched down amongst
Mr. Gum's cabbages, got under shelter of the hedge, and so stole onwards,
until he came to an anchor at the kitchen-window, and laid his ear to the
shutter, just as it had recently been laid against the glass in the
dining-room of my Lord Hartledon.
That he had a propensity for prying into the private affairs of his
neighbours near and distant, there could be little doubt about. Mr. Pike,
however, was not destined on this one occasion to reap any substantial
reward. The kitchen appeared to be wrapped in perfect silence. Satisfying
himself as to this, he next took off his heavy shoes, stole past the back
door, and so round the clerk's house to the front. Very softly indeed
went he, creeping by the wall, and emerging at last round the angle, by
the window of the best parlour. Here, most excessively to Mr. Pike's
consternation, he came upon a lady doing exactly what he had come to
do--namely, stealthily listening at the window to anything there might be
to hear inside.
The shrill scream she gave when she found her face in contact with the
wild intruder, might have been heard over at Dr. Ashton's. Clerk Gum, who
had been quietly writing in his office, came out in haste, and recognized
Mrs. Jones, the wife of the surly porter at the station, and step-mother
to the troublesome young servant, Rebecca.
Pages:
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125