For the first time he wondered about his future. It was unguarded by the
placid and safe engagements of the majority of lives. He would, he knew,
ultimately possess Myrtle Forge, a part of Shadrach, and a considerable
fortune. That was his obvious inheritance. But, suddenly, the material
thing, the actual, grew immaterial, and the visionary assumed a dark and
enigmatic reality.
Howat abruptly quitted the night of the lawn, his sombre questioning,
for the house. The candles had been extinguished in the drawing room. A
square, glass lamp hung at the foot of the stairs; and there he
encountered a man in a scratch wig, with a long nose flattened at the
end. He bowed obsequiously--a posturing figure in shirtsleeves with a
green cloth waistcoat and black legs. The Italian servant, Howat
concluded. He passed noiselessly, leaving a reek of pomatum and the
memory of a servile smile. Howat Penny experienced a strong sense of
distaste, almost depression, at the other's silent proximity. It
followed him to his room, contaminated his sleep with unintelligible
whispering, oily and disturbing gestures, and fled only at the widening
glimmer of dawn.
IV
The sun had almost reached the zenith before Mrs. Winscombe appeared
from her room.
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