w! And to the right of
the hearth over bookshelves would be such and such a picture, and to the
left of the hearth over bookshelves such and such another picture...
Only, now, he could not dream in the room as he had meant to dream;
because beyond the open door was the empty landing and the well of the
stairs and all the terror of the house. The terror came and mingled
with the delicious sensations that had seized him in the solitude of the
garden of the Orgreaves. No! Never had he been so intensely alive as
then!

He went cautiously to the window and looked forth. Instantly the terror
of the house was annihilated. It fell away, was gone. He was not alone
in his fancy-created universe. The reassuring illusion of reality came
back like a clap of thunder. He could see a girl insinuating herself
through the gap in the hedge which he had made ten minutes earlier.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

FOUR.

"What the deuce is she after?" he muttered. He wondered whether, if she
happened to glance upwards, she would be able to see him. He stood away
a little from the window, but as in the safer position he could no
longer distinguish her he came again close to the glass. After all,
there could be no risk of her seeing him. And if she did see him,--the
fright would be hers, not his.

Having passed through the hedge, she stopped, bent down, leaning
backward and to one side, and lifted the hem of her skirt to examine it;
possibly it was torn; then she dropped it. By that black, tight skirt
and by something in her walk he knew she was Hilda; he could not
decipher her features. She moved towards the new house, very slowly, as
if she had emerged for an aimless nocturnal stroll. Strange and
disquieting creature! He peered as far as he could leftwards, to see
the west wall of Lane End House. In a window of the upper floor a light
burned. The family had doubtless gone to bed, or were going... And she
had wandered forth solitary and was trespassing in his garden. "Cheek!"
If ever he got an opportunity he should mysteriously tease her on the
subject of illegal night excursions! Yes, he should be very witty and
ironic. "Nothing but cheek!" He was confirmed in his hostility to her.
She had no charm, and yet the entire Orgreave family was apparently
infatuated about her. Her interruption on behalf of Victor Hugo seemed
to be savage. Girls ought not to use that ruthless to