'Are they going
after Madame?'
'Little goose,' whispered her lover, with a laugh; 'if they are they
will never catch up to that horse. It's all right, Bebe,' with a
reassuring smile, seeing that Kitty still looked somewhat alarmed,
'they are only some miners out on a drunken frolic.'
Thus pacified, Kitty laughed gaily, and they wandered along in the
moonlight, talking all the fond and foolish nonsense they could
think of.
Meanwhile the great black cloud had completely hidden the moon, and
the whole landscape was quite dark. This annoyed Madame, as,
depending on the moonlight, the lamps of the trap were not lighted,
and she could not see in the darkness how to drive down a very
awkward bit of road that she was now on.
It was very steep, and there was a high bank on one side, while on
the other there was a fall of about ten feet. She felt annoyed at
the darkness, but on looking up saw that the cloud would soon pass,
so drove on slowly quite content. Unluckily she did not see the
figure on the high bank which ran along stealthily beside her, and
while turning a corner, Mr Villiers--for it was he--dropped suddenly
from the bank on to the trap, and caught her by the throat.
'My God!' cried the unfortunate woman, taken by surprise, and,
involuntarily tightening the reins, the horse stopped--'who are
you?'
Villiers never said a word, but tightened his grasp on her throat
and shortened his stick to give her a blow on the head.
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