"Oh, I am not afraid of you or your accomplice," she answered spiritedly."I am content to stand by every word I have said, every act I have done.Moreover, I believe in God's justice. I fear not the grinding of Hismills; if necessary I shall set the wheels in motion myself. But youdon't care for God, or believe in Him. Your god is your great kite,which cows the birds of a whole district. But be sure that His hand,when it rises, always falls at the appointed time. It may be that yourname is being called even at this very moment at the Great Assize. Repentwhile there is still time. Happy you, if you may be allowed to enterthose mighty halls in the company of the pure-souled angel whose voicehas only to whisper one word of justice, and you disappear for ever intoeverlasting torment."
The sudden death of Lilla caused consternation among Mimi's friends andwell-wishers. Such a tragedy was totally unexpected, as Adam and SirNathaniel had been expecting the White Worm's vengeance to fall uponthemselves.
Adam, leaving his wife free to follow her own desires with regard toLilla and her grandfather, busied himself with filling the well-hole withthe fine sand prepared for the purpose, taking care to have lowered atstated intervals quantities of the store of dynamite, so as to be readyfor the final explosion. He had under his immediate supervision a corpsof workmen, and was assisted by Sir Nathaniel, who had come over for thepurpose, and all were now staying at Lesser Hill.
Mr. Salton, too, showed much interest in the job, and was constantlycoming in and out, nothing escaping his observation.
Since her marriage to Adam and their coming to stay at Doom Tower, Mimihad been fettered by fear of the horrible monster at Diana's Grove. Butnow she dreaded it no longer. She accepted the fact of its assuming atwill the form of Lady Arabella. She had still to tax and upbraid her forher part in the unhappiness which had been wrought on Lilla, and for hershare in causing her death.
One evening, when Mimi entered her own room, she went to the window andthrew an eager look round the whole circle of sight. A single glancesatisfied her that the White Worm in _propria persona_ was not visible.So she sat down in the window-seat and enjoyed the pleasure of a fullview, from which she had been so long cut off. The maid who waited onher had told her that Mr. Salton had not yet returned home, so she feltfree to enjoy the luxury of peace and quiet.
As she looked out of the window, she saw something thin and white movealong the avenue. She thought she recognised the figure of LadyArabella, and instinctively drew back behind the curtain. When she hadascertained, by peeping out several times, that the lady had not seenher, she watched more carefully, all her instinctive hatred flooding backat the sight of her. Lady Arabella was moving swiftly and stealthily,looking back and around her at intervals, as if she feared to befollowed. This gave Mimi an idea that she was up to no good, so shedetermined to seize the occasion for watching her in more detail.
Hastily putting on a dark cloak and hat, she ran downstairs and out intothe avenue. Lady Arabella had moved, but the sheen of her white dresswas still to be seen among the young oaks around the gateway. Keeping inshadow, Mimi followed, taking care not to come so close as to awake theother's suspicion, and watched her quarry pass along the road in thedirection of Castra Regis.
She followed on steadily through the gloom of the trees, depending on theglint of the white dress to keep her right. The wood began to thicken,and presently, when the road widened and the trees grew farther back, shelost sight of any indication of her whereabouts. Under the presentconditions it was impossible for her to do any more, so, after waitingfor a while, still hidden in the shadow to see if she could catch anotherglimpse of the white frock, she determined to go on slowly towards CastraRegis, and trust to the chapt
er of accidents to pick up the trail again.She went on slowly, taking advantage of every obstacle and shadow to keepherself concealed.
At last she entered on the grounds of the Castle, at a spot from whichthe windows of the turret were dimly visible, without having seen againany sign of Lady Arabella.
Meanwhile, during most of the time that Mimi Salton had been movingwarily along in the gloom, she was in reality being followed by LadyArabella, who had caught sight of her leaving the house and had neveragain lost touch with her. It was a case of the hunter being hunted. Fora time Mimi's many turnings, with the natural obstacles that wereperpetually intervening, caused Lady Arabella some trouble; but when shewas close to Castra Regis, there was no more possibility of concealment,and the strange double following went swiftly on.
When she saw Mimi close to the hall door of Castra Regis and ascendingthe steps, she followed. When Mimi entered the dark hall and felt herway up the staircase, still, as she believed, following Lady Arabella,the latter kept on her way. When they reached the lobby of the turret-rooms, Mimi believed that the object of her search was ahead of her.
Edgar Caswall sat in the gloom of the great room, occasionally stirred tocuriosity when the drifting clouds allowed a little light to fall fromthe storm-swept sky. But nothing really interested him now. Since hehad heard of Lilla's death, the gloom of his remorse, emphasised byMimi's upbraiding, had made more hopeless his cruel, selfish, saturninenature. He heard no sound, for his normal faculties seemed benumbed.
Mimi, when she came to the door, which stood ajar, gave a light tap. Solight was it that it did not reach Caswall's ears. Then, taking hercourage in both hands, she boldly pushed the door and entered. As shedid so, her heart sank, for now she was face to face with a difficultywhich had not, in her state of mental perturbation, occurred to her.
CHAPTER XXVII--ON THE TURRET ROOF
The storm which was coming was already making itself manifest, not onlyin the wide scope of nature, but in the hearts and natures of humanbeings. Electrical disturbance in the sky and the air is reproduced inanimals of all kinds, and particularly in the highest type of themall--the most receptive--the most electrical. So it was with EdgarCaswall, despite his selfish nature and coldness of blood. So it waswith Mimi Salton, despite her unselfish, unchanging devotion for thoseshe loved. So it was even with Lady Arabella, who, under the instinctsof a primeval serpent, carried the ever-varying wishes and customs ofwomanhood, which is always old--and always new.
Edgar, after he had turned his eyes on Mimi, resumed his apatheticposition and sullen silence. Mimi quietly took a seat a little wayapart, whence she could look on the progress of the coming storm andstudy its appearance throughout the whole visible circle of theneighbourhood. She was in brighter and better spirits than she had beenfor many days past. Lady Arabella tried to efface herself behind the nowopen door.
Without, the clouds grew thicker and blacker as the storm-centre camecloser. As yet the forces, from whose linking the lightning springs,were held apart, and the silence of nature proclaimed the calm before thestorm. Caswall felt the effect of the gathering electric force. A sortof wild exultation grew upon him, such as he had sometimes felt justbefore the breaking of a tropical storm. As he became conscious of this,he raised his head and caught sight of Mimi. He was in the grip of anemotion greater than himself; in the mood in which he was he felt theneed upon him of doing some desperate deed. He was now absolutelyreckless, and as Mimi was associated with him in the memory which drovehim on, he wished that she too should be engaged in this enterprise. Hehad no knowledge of the proximity of Lady Arabella, and thought that hewas far removed from all he knew and whose interests he shared--alonewith the wild elements, which were being lashed to fury, and with thewoman who had struggled with him and vanquished him, and on whom he wouldshower the full measure of his hate.
The fact was that Edgar Caswall was, if not mad, close to theborder-line. Madness in its first stage--monomania--is a lack ofproportion. So long as this is general, it is not always noticeable, forthe uninspired onlooker is without the necessary means of comparison. Butin monomania the errant faculty protrudes itself in a way that may not bedenied. It puts aside, obscures, or takes the place of somethingelse--just as the head of a pin placed before the centre of the iris willblock out the whole scope of vision. The most usual form of monomaniahas commonly the same beginning as that from which Edgar Caswallsuffered--an over-large idea of self-importance. Alienists, who studythe matter exactly, probably know more of human vanity and its effectsthan do ordinary men. Caswall's mental disturbance was not hard toidentify. Every asylum is full of such cases--men and women, who,naturally selfish and egotistical, so appraise to themselves their ownimportance that every other circumstance in life becomes subservient toit. The disease supplies in itself the material for self-magnification.When the decadence attacks a nature naturally proud and selfish and vain,and lacking both the aptitude and habit of self-restraint, thedevelopment of the disease is more swift, and ranges to farther limits.It is such persons who become imbued with the idea that they have theattributes of the Almighty--even that they themselves are the Almighty.
Mimi had a suspicion--or rather, perhaps, an intuition--of the true stateof things when she heard him speak, and at the same time noticed theabnormal flush on his face, and his rolling eyes. There was a certainwant of fixedness of purpose which she had certainly not noticed before--aquick, spasmodic utterance which belongs rather to the insane than tothose of intellectual equilibrium. She was a little frightened, not onlyby his thoughts, but by his staccato way of expressing them.
Caswall moved to the door leading to the turret stair by which the roofwas reached, and spoke in a peremptory way, whose tone alone made herfeel defiant.
"Come! I want you."
She instinctively drew back--she was not accustomed to such words, moreespecially to such a tone. Her answer was indicative of a new contest.
"Why should I go? What for?"
He did not at once reply--another indication of his overwhelming egotism.She repeated her questions; habit reasserted itself, and he spoke withoutthinking the words which were in his heart.
"I want you, if you will be so good, to come with me to the turret roof.I am much interested in certain experiments with the kite, which wouldbe, if not a pleasure, at least a novel experience to you. You would seesomething not easily seen otherwise."
"I will come," she answered simply; Edgar moved in the direction of thestair, she following close behind him.
She did not like to be left alone at such a height, in such a place, inthe darkness, with a storm about to break. Of himself she had no fear;all that had been seemed to have passed away with her two victories overhim in the struggle of wills. Moreover, the more recentapprehension--that of his madness--had also ceased. In the conversationof the last few minutes he seemed so rational, so clear, so unaggressive,that she no longer saw reason for doubt. So satisfied was she that evenwhen he put out a hand to guide her to the steep, narrow stairway, shetook it without thought in the most conventional way.
Lady Arabella, crouching in the lobby behind the door, heard every wordthat had been said, and formed her own opinion of it. It seemed evidentto her that there had been some rapprochement between the two who had solately been hostile to each other, and that made her furiously angry.Mimi was interfering with her plans! She had made certain of her captureof Edgar Caswall, and she could not tolerate even the lightest and mostcontemptuous fancy on his part which might divert him from the mainissue. When she became aware that he wished Mimi to come with him to theroof and that she had acquiesced, her rage got beyond bounds. She becameoblivious to any danger there might be in a visit to such an exposedplace at such a time, and to all lesser considerations, and made up hermind to forestall them. She stealthily and noiselessly crept through thewicket, and, ascending the stair, stepped out on the roof. It wasbitterly cold, for the fierce gusts of the storm which swept round theturret drove in through every unimpeded way, whistling at the sharpcorners and singing round the trembling flagstaff. The kite-string andthe wire which controlled the runners made a concourse of weird soundswhich somehow, perhaps from the violence which surrounded them, acting ontheir length, resolved themselves into some kind of harmony--a fittingaccompaniment to the tragedy which seemed about to begin.