without a rustle, from my shoulders, and if I wavered for the instant
it was not with what I kept back. I put out my hand to her and she
took it; I held her hard a little, liking to feel her close to me.
There was a kind of support in the shy heave of her surprise.
"You came for me for church, of course, but I can't go."

"Has anything happened?"

"Yes. You must know now. Did I look very queer?"

"Through this window? Dreadful!"

"Well," I said, "I've been frightened." Mrs. Grose's eyes expressed
plainly that SHE had no wish to be, yet also that she knew too well
her place not to be ready to share with me any marked inconvenience.
Oh, it was quite settled that she MUST share! "Just what you
saw from the dining room a minute ago was the effect of that.
What _I_ saw--just before--was much worse."

Her hand tightened. "What was it?"

"An extraordinary man. Looking in."

"What extraordinary man?"

"I haven't the least idea."

Mrs. Grose gazed round us in vain. "Then where is he gone?"

"I know still less."