She fell back into the chair, her
arms limp and lifeless.
"Confound the girl!" he thought. "She's going to faint now! What an
infernal nuisance!"
Compunction, instead of softening him, made him angry with himself. He
felt awkward, at a loss, furious.
"Mrs. Tams!" he called out, and hurried from the room. "Mrs. Tams!" As
he went out he was rather startled to find that the door had not been
quite closed.
In the lobby he called again, "Mrs. Tams!"
The kitchen gas showed a speck of blue. He had not noticed it when he
came into the house: the kitchen door must have been shut, then. He
looked up the stairs. He could discern that the door of Mrs. Tams's
bedroom, at the top, was open, and that there was no light in the
room. Puzzled, he rushed to the kitchen, and snatched at his hat as he
went, sticking it anyhow on his head.
"Eh, mester, what ever's amiss?"
With these alarmed words Mrs. Tams appeared suddenly from behind the
kitchen door; she seemed a little out of breath, as far as Louis could
hear; he could not see her very well. The thought flashed through his
mind. "She's been listening at doors."
"Oh! There you are," he said, with an effort at ordinariness of
demeanour.
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