Give me your hand upon it."
They shook hands silently, went down stairs, and stood for a
moment at the door.
"You'll find me here at any hour between this and morning," said
Sir Norman. "Farewell now, and Heaven speed you!"
The boy waved his hand in adieu, and started off at a sharp pace.
Sir Norman turned in the opposite direction for a short walk, to
cool the fever in his blood, and think over all that had
happened. As be went slowly along, in the shadow of the houses,
he suddenly tripped up over something lying in his path, and was
nearly precipitated over it.
Stooping down to examine the stumbling-block, it proved to be the
rigid body of a man, and that man was Ormiston, stark and dead,
with his face upturned to the calm night-sky.
CHAPTER XVII
THE HIDDEN FACE
When Mr. Malcolm Ormiston, with his usual good sense and
penetration, took himself off, and left Leoline and Sir Norman
tete-a-tete, his steps turned as mechanically as the needle to
the North Pole toward La Masque's house. Before it he wandered,
around it he wandered, like an uneasy ghost, lost in speculation
about the hidden face, and fearfully impatient about the flight
of time.
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