some of mrs. sharp’s earliest thoughts, the next morning, were given to caterina, whom she had not been able to visit the evening before, and whom, from a nearly equal mixture of affection and self-importance, she did not at all like resigning to mrs. bellamy’s care. at half-past eight o’clock she went up to tina’s room, bent on benevolent dictation as to doses and diet and lying in bed. but on opening the door she found the bed smooth and empty. evidently it had not been slept in. what could this mean? had she sat up all night, and was she gone out to walk? the poor thing’s head might be touched by what had happened yesterday; it was such a shock—finding captain wybrow in that way; she was perhaps gone out of her mind. mrs. sharp looked anxiously in the place where tina kept her hat and cloak; they were not there, so that she had had at least the presence of mind to put them on. still the good woman felt greatly alarmed, and hastened away to tell mr. gilfil, who, she knew, was in his study.
‘mr. gilfil,’ she said, as soon as she had closed the door behind her, ‘my mind misgives me dreadful about miss sarti.’
‘what is it?’ said poor maynard, with a horrible fear that caterina had betrayed something about the dagger.
‘she’s not in her room, an’ her bed’s not been slept in this night, an’ her hat an’ cloak’s gone.’
for a minute or two mr. gilfil was unable to speak. he felt sure the worst had come: caterina had destroyed herself. the strong man suddenly looked so ill and helpless that mrs. sharp began to be frightened at the effect of her abruptness.
‘o, sir, i’m grieved to my heart to shock you so; but i didn’t know who else to go to.’
‘no, no, you were quite right.’
he gathered some strength from his very despair. it was all over, and he had nothing now to do but to suffer and to help the suffering. he went on in a firmer voice—‘be sure not to breathe a word about it to any one. we must not alarm lady cheverel and sir christopher. miss sarti may be only walking in the garden. she was terribly excited by what she saw yesterday, and perhaps was unable to lie down from restlessness. just go quietly through the empty rooms, and see whether she is in the house. i will go and look for her in the grounds.’
he went down, and, to avoid giving any alarm in the house, walked at once towards the mosslands in search of mr. bates, whom he met returning from his breakfast. to the gardener he confided his fear about caterina, assigning as a reason for this fear the probability that the shock she had undergone yesterday had unhinged her mind, and begging him to send men in search of her through the gardens and park, and inquire if she had been seen at the lodges; and if she were not found or heard of in this way, to lose no time in dragging the waters round the manor.
‘god forbid it should be so, bates, but we shall be the easier for having searched everywhere.’
‘troost to mae, troost to mae, mr. gilfil. eh! but i’d ha’ worked for day-wage all the rest o’ my life, rether than anythin’ should ha’ happened to her.’
the good gardener, in deep distress, strode away to the stables that he might send the grooms on horseback through the park.
mr. gilfil’s next thought was to search the rookery: she might be haunting the scene of captain wybrow’s death. he went hastily over every mound, looked round every large tree, and followed every winding of the walks. in reality he had little hope of finding her there; but the bare possibility fenced off for a time the fatal conviction that caterina’s body would be found in the water. when the rookery had been searched in vain, he walked fast to the border of the little stream that bounded one side of the grounds. the stream was almost everywhere hidden among trees, and there was one place where it was broader and deeper than elsewhere—she would be more likely to come to that spot than to the pool. he hurried along with strained eyes, his imagination continually creating what he dreaded to see.
there is something white behind that overhanging bough. his knees tremble under him. he seems to see part of her dress caught on a branch, and her dear dead face upturned. o god, give strength to thy creature, on whom thou hast laid this great agony! he is nearly up to the bough, and the white object is moving. it is a waterfowl, that spreads its wings and flies away screaming. he hardly knows whether it is a relief or a disappointment that she is not there. the conviction that she is dead presses its cold weight upon him none the less heavily.
as he reached the great pool in front of the manor, he saw mr. bates, with a group of men already there, preparing for the dreadful search which could only displace his vague despair by a definite horror; for the gardener, in his restless anxiety, had been unable to defer this until other means of search had proved vain. the pool was not now laughing with sparkles among the water-lilies. it looked black and cruel under the sombre sky, as if its cold depths held relentlessly all the murdered hope and joy of maynard gilfil’s life.
thoughts of the sad consequences for others as well as himself were crowding on his mind. the blinds and shutters were all closed in front of the manor, and it was not likely that sir christopher would be aware of anything that was passing outside; but mr. gilfil felt that caterina’s disappearance could not long be concealed from him. the coroner’s inquest would be held shortly; she would be inquired for, and then it would be inevitable that the baronet should know all.
