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"I counted them," said the other, with the eagerness of a person to whom the spectacle had afforded too much interest to be viewed with indifference. "But ye did not see," said Ailsie, exulting in her superior observation, "that there's a thirteenth amang them that they ken naething about; and, if auld freits say true, there's ane o' that company that'll no be lang for this warld.
Norah was angry with herself for growing impatient of the length of time that long lingering gaze lasted. She thought that she waited for full half an hour before Frank stirred. And then instead of going away he sank down on his knees by the bedside, and buried his face in the clothes. Little Ailsie stirred uneasily. Norah pulled him up in terror.
What could the condemned man, in the last hour of his life, want with him? Frisbie spoke: "My lord, I am a dying man; but I could not meet death with guilty secrets on my soul. My lord, I have told everything, the whole truth about the death of poor Ailsie, and the plot against my lady. I could not help it, my lord. I could not leave the world with such wrong unrighted behind me.
Lady Vincent had noticed this poor girl, and had observed that she was pale, thin, sad, always with red eyes, and often in tears. Once she inquired kindly: "What is the matter with you, Ailsie?" "It's just naething, me leddy," was the weeping girl's answer. "But I am sure it is something. Can you not tell me? What is it troubles you?" "Just naething, me leddy," was still the answer.
On Saturday night the baffled coroner's jury returned their unsatisfactory verdict: "The deceased, Ailsie Dunbar, came to her death by a wound inflicted in her throat with a razor held in the hands of some person unknown to the jury."
'Yes, said Ailsie, looking round her; then clinging to her mother, 'but a man was here in the night, mother. 'Nonsense, little goose. No man has ever come near you! 'Yes, he did. He stood there. Just by Norah. A man with hair and a beard. And he knelt down and said his prayers. 'Well! we will ask Norah when she comes, said Mrs Openshaw, soothingly. 'But we won't talk any more about him now.
I did not indulge in any more boating expeditions, but admired the sea from the pier, and became familiar with all the spokes of the fish-wife's family wheel; at any rate, enough to distinguish Jamie from Sandy, and Willie from Johnnie, and Maggie from Jeanie, and Ailsie from Lizzie, and was great friends with them all.
Frisbie, I was an eye-witness to the death of Ailsie Dunbar," said his lordship emphatically, and fixing his eyes firmly upon the face of his valet. Down fell the wretch upon his knees, with his hands clasped, his face blanched, and his teeth chattering. "Oh, my lord, mercy, mercy!
An sae this is Alizon Nutter it wad be Ailsie in our ain Scottish tongue, to which your Lancashire vernacular closely approximates, Sir Richard. Aweel, fair Alizon," he added, eyeing her narrowly, "ye hae lost your mither, we understand?"
And this was all that Claudia could get out of this poor girl. Once she inquired of Mrs. Murdock: "What ails Ailsie Dunbar? Her looks trouble me." "Indeed, me leddy, I dinna ken. The lassie is greeting fra morning till night, and will na gie onybody ony satisfaction about it! But I will try to find out." And that was all Lady Vincent could get out of the housekeeper.
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