composure. Everything was cleared and packed up in that apartment.
The little personal property he had, the shabby boots and worn
habiliments, had disappeared totally; even the rubbish of wood-carving
on his table was cleared away. Not a trace that he had been there a
few hours ago remained in the place. The Curate came out of the room
with an anxious countenance, not knowing what to make of it. And by
this time Sarah's sobs had roused Mrs Hadwin, who stood, severe and
indignant, at her own door in her nightcap, to know what was the
matter. Mr Wentworth retired into his own apartments after a word of
explanation, leaving the mistress and maid to fight it out. He himself
was more disturbed and excited than he could have described. He could
not tell what this new step meant, but felt instinctively that it
denoted some new development in the tangled web of his own fortunes.
Some hidden danger seemed to him to be gathering in the air over the
house of mourning, of which he had constituted himself a kind of
guardian. He could not sleep all night, but kept starting at every
sound, thinking now that the skulking rascal, who was Lucy's brother,
was coming back, and now that his departure was only a dream. Mr
Wentworth's restlessness was not soothed by hearing all the night
through, in the silence of the house, suppressed sobs and sounds of
weeping proceeding from the attic overhead, which poor Sarah shared
with her fellow-servant. Perhaps the civilities of "the gentleman" had
dazzled Sarah, and been too much for her peace of mind; perhaps it was
only her character, as the poor girl said. But as often as the Curate
started from his uneasy and broken snatches of sleep, he heard the
murmur of crying and consoling up-stairs. Outside the night was
spreading forth those sweetest unseen glories of the starlight and the
moonlight and the silence, which Nature reserves for her own
enjoyment, when the weary human creatures are out of the way and at
rest;--and Jack Wentworth slept the sleep of the righteous, uttering
delicate little indications of the depth of his slumber, which it
would have been profane to call by any vulgar name. _He_ slept sweetly
while his brother watched and longed for daylight, impatient for the
morrow which must bring forth something new. The moonlight streamed
full into the empty room, and made mysterious combinations of the
furniture, and chased the darkness into corners which each held their
secret. This was how