The figure was too tall to be Eustace, and Eustace,
she knew, was the only man in the house. Male figures, therefore, that
went flitting about Windles, must be the figures of burglars.
Mrs. Hignett, bold woman though she was, stood for an instant
spellbound, and for one moment of not unpardonable panic, tried to tell
herself that she had been mistaken. Almost immediately, however, there
came from the direction of the hall a dull chunky sound as though
something soft had been kicked, followed by a low gurgle and the noise
of staggering feet. Unless he was dancing a _pas seul_ out of
sheer lightness of heart, the nocturnal visitor must have tripped over
something.
The latter theory was the correct one. Montagu Webster was a man who at
many a subscription ball had shaken a wicked dancing-pump, and nothing
in the proper circumstances pleased him better than to exercise the
skill which had become his as the result of twelve private lessons at
half-a-crown a visit: but he recognized the truth of the scriptural
adage that there is a time for dancing, and that this was not it.
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