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For a while nothing happened, and then all at once there occurred something which Donnington will never recall and that however long he may live without a sensation of unreasoning, retrospective horror welling up within him. And yet it was only the sound the almost stuffless sound of a splash! It was as if a lump of earth, becoming detached from the wet bank, had rolled over into the deep water.
Bill Donnington what a nice boy! And yet not exactly, he felt, in sympathy with any of the people there. He wondered why Bill Donnington had come to spend Christmas at Wyndfell Hall. Then he remembered and smiled in the fitful firelight. What a pity there wasn't some nice, simple, gentle girl for young Donnington! That was the sort of girl he, Panton, would have chosen for him.
Varick was now staring into the fire, but at last he began in a strained, tired voice: "Donnington had just shouted out that we were walking rather too near to the edge, and so I took hold of her arm. But you know what Bubbles is like? She's a queer kind of girl, and she tried to wrench herself free. Then I gripped a little harder and well, I don't know exactly what did happen!
"I know what we must do we must sell them at the market!" "Where?" "At Donnington." "We shall want the cart and horse." "Ask father." "No. You ask him you know I always stammer so when I ask." The speakers were two dark, straight-featured little boys of ten and twelve, and the above conversation was carried on in eager whispers, for they were not alone in the room.
Everyone watched her breathlessly: Donnington with mingled admiration, love, and jealous disapproval; James Tapster with a feeling that perhaps the time had come for him to allow himself to be "caught" at last; Helen Brabazon with wide-eyed, kindly envy of the other girl's cleverness; Varick with a queer feeling of growing suspicion and dislike.
I don't mind admitting now that, when I began, I had hardly any hope of being able to bring her round." He waited a moment and then added, as if to himself: "In fact, there came a time when I would have left off, discouraged, but for the look on that boy's face." "What boy?" asked Tapster, surprised. "Donnington, of course! I felt I must bring her back to life for his sake."
The first approach to Donnington disappointed him; he looked round and saw neither castle, nor park, nor anything to admire till he came to the top of a hill, when in the valley below suddenly appeared the turrets of a castle, surpassing all he had conceived of light and magnificent in architecture: a real castle! not a modern, bungling imitation.
In addition to his revenues, the Duke of Lancaster, who was virtually the ruler of the land during the reign of Richard II., gave him the castle of Donnington, with its park and gardens; so that he became a man of territorial influence. At the age of fifty-eight he removed to London, and took a house in the precincts of Westminster Abbey, where the chapel of Henry VII. now stands.
He could see nothing nothing! He threw off his coat. "Was it just here?" He looked at Varick with a feeling of anguished exasperation; it was as if the horror and the shock had congealed the man's mental faculties. Suddenly Varick roused himself. "Can you swim?" He gripped Donnington strongly by the arm. "If not, it's it's no good your going in you'd only drown too."
"I'm really awfully sorry," he exclaimed. "If this sort of thing goes on I'll have to send him home to-morrow." Poor Panton looked thoroughly put out and annoyed. But Bubbles came to his rescue Bubbles and the young man whom the doctor now knew to be Bill Donnington. "Come on, Bill! We'll take him round to the kitchen. You don't mind, do you?"
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