Sometimes, as they sat silent in the richly colored, homelike
room, Eve would pause over her embroidery and let her thoughts
spin momentarily forward--spin towards the point where, the
brunt of his ordeal passed, he must, of necessity, seek
something beyond mere rest. But there her thoughts would
inevitably break off and the blood flame quickly into her cheek.
Meanwhile Loder worked persistently. With each day that
brought the crisis of Fraide's scheme nearer, his activity
increased--and with it an intensifying of the nervous strain.
For if he had his hours of exaltation, he also had his hours
of black apprehension. It is all very well to exorcise a
ghost by sheer strength of will, but one has also to eliminate
the idea that gave it existence. Lillian Astrupp, with her
unattested evidence and her ephemeral interest, gave him no real
uneasiness; but Chilcote and Chilcote's possible summons were
matters of graver consideration; and there were times when they
loomed very dark and sinister: What if at the very moment of
fulfilment--? But invariably he snapped the thread of the
supposition and turned with fiercer ardor to his work of
preparation.
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