"The only one, Shirley."
They both sat near the window, and both leaned their arms on the sill, and both inclined their heads towards the open lattice. They saw each other's young faces by the starlight, and that dim, June twilight which does not wholly fade from the west till dawn begins to break in the east.
"Mr. Helstone thinks we have no idea which way he is gone," murmured Miss Keeldar, "nor on what errand, nor with what expectations, nor how prepared; but I guess much—do not you?"
"I guess something."
"All those gentlemen—your cousin Moore included—think that you and I are now asleep in our beds, unconscious."
"Caring nothing about them—hoping and fearing nothing for them," added Caroline.
Both kept silence for full half an hour. The night was silent, too; only the church-clock measured its course by quarters. Some words were interchanged about the chill of the air: they wrapped their scarves closer round them, resumed their bonnets, which they had removed, and again watched.
Towards midnight, the teasing, monotonous bark of the house-dog disturbed the quietude of their vigil. Caroline rose, and made her way noiselessly through the dark passages to the kitchen, intending to appease him with a piece of bread: she succeeded. On returning to the dining-room, she found it all dark, Miss Keeldar having extinguished the candle:
