She
resisted with the inbred nervous strength which the weakest woman living
has in reserve when she is outraged. Half indignant, half terrified, at
Turlington's roughness, Miss Lavinia rose to interfere. In a moment more
he would have had two women to overpower instead of one, when a noise
outside the window suddenly suspended the ignoble struggle.
There was a sound of footsteps on the gravel-walk which ran between the
house wall and the garden lawn. It was followed by a tap--a single faint
tap, no more--on one of the panes of glass.
They all three stood still. For a moment more nothing was audible. Then
there was a heavy shock, as of something falling outside. Then a groan,
then another interval of silence--a long silence, interrupted no more.
Turlington's arm dropped from Natalie. She drew back to her aunt.
Looking at him instinctively, in the natural expectation that he would
take the lead in penetrating the mystery of what had happened outside
the window, the two women were thunderstruck to see that he was, to
all appearance, even more startled and more helpless than they were.
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