"
"Then I shall be very happy to get it for you," I said.
"But I could not think," he continued, "of allowing you to pursue your
way through this utter darkness to the extreme rear of the Ark alone. I
beg you to show me the way."
I was not disposed to commit so gross an impropriety as to linger with
Mr. Rollin in "Grandma's kitchen," which we had reached, and through
whose broad, uncurtained windows the moonlight was pouring in with a
clear, fantastic radiance.
"Isn't this glorious!" exclaimed the fisherman, in a tone nearly as
rapturous as Mrs. Barlow's own. "Oh, you don't think of going back now,
Miss Hungerford! After I've mopped the kitchen floor, and braved all
Wallencamp in its lair, and groped my way out through those infernally
black rooms, for the chance of having a few quiet words with you."
Mr. Rollin's eyes were not snaky, nor his manner suggestive of dark
duplicity; yet I always felt a certain unaccountable discomfort while in
his presence, as though there was need of keeping my own conscience
particularly on the alert.
I knew that the group in the parlor would be counting the moments of our
absence.
"How can you ask me--" I began, in a tone of cheerful remonstrance, at the
same time readjusting my glasses to glance about for the little "no-back"
chair--"How can you ask me to stay out here talking with you, when you
know----"
"Oh, I know.
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