’You see, Philip,’ said his aunt, ’I thought it was a saint’s day, and the saints want encouragement; so I went to the parish church. I put dinner off—now can I induce you and Miss Cusworth to come in and pick a little meat with me?—not bones, Philip, these we have pulled already together. I was taken with a little faintness in church, and Miss Cusworth has kindly lent me support on my way home.’
The little group stood near the doorstep to the house occupied by Mrs. Sidebottom. A gaslight was at the edge of the footway, a few paces lower down the road. Mrs. Sidebottom disengaged her hand from the arm of Salome—then the girl started, shrank back, and uttered an exclamation of terror.
’What is the matter?’ asked Mrs. Sidebottom.
’I have seen it again,’ said the girl, in a low tone.
’Never mind what,’ interrupted Philip, divining immediately from Salome’s alarm and agitation what she meant. ’We must not keep my aunt waiting in the street. The ground is damp and the wind cold. Good-night, Aunt Louisa. I will escort Miss Cusworth home.’
When Philip was alone with Salome, he said: ’What was it?—what did you see?’
’I saw that same man, standing by the lamp-post, looking at us. He wore _his_ hat and overcoat. Again I was unable to see any face, because the strong light fell from above, and it was in shadow. You had your back to the lamp, and the figure was in your rear. When you turned—it was gone.’
The figure seen in the dark had diverted Philip from his purpose of speaking to Salome about money. He was not particularly eager to make his proposal, because that proposition had in it a smack of evasion of an offer already made; as though he had speedily repented of the liberality of the first. In this there was some moral cowardice, such as is found in all but blunt natures, and induces them to catch at excuses for deferring an unpleasant duty. There exists a wide gulf between two sorts of persons—the one shrinks and shivers at the obligations to say or do anything that may pain another; the other rushes at the chance with avidity, like a hornet impatient to sting. On this occasion Philip had a real excuse for postponing what he had come out to say, for Salome was not in a frame of mind to attend to it; she was alarmed and bewildered by this second encounter with a man whose face she had not seen, and who was so mysterious in his proceedings.