CHAPTER XVIII 242
Miss Ingram rose solemnly: " I go first," she said, in a tone which might have befitted the leader of a forlorn hope, mounting a breach in the van of his men.
" Oh, my best! oh, my dearest! pause-- reflect!" was her mama ' s cry; but she swept past her in stately silence, passed through the door which Colonel Dent held open, and we heard her enter the library.
A comparative silence ensued. Lady Ingram thought it " le cas " to wring her hands: which she did accordingly. Miss Mary declared she felt, for her part, she never dared venture. Amy and Louisa Eshton tittered under their breath, and looked a little frightened.
The minutes passed very slowly: fifteen were counted before the library-door again opened. Miss Ingram returned to us through the arch.
Would she laugh? Would she take it as a joke? All eyes met her with a glance of eager curiosity, and she met all eyes with one of rebuff and coldness; she looked neither flurried nor merry: she walked stiffly to her seat, and took it in silence.
" Well, Blanche?" said Lord Ingram. " What did she say, sister?" asked Mary.
" What did you think? How do you feel?-- Is she a real fortune-teller?" demanded the Misses Eshton.
" Now, now, good people," returned Miss Ingram, " don ' t press upon me. Really your organs of wonder and credulity are easily excited: you seem, by the importance of you all-- my good mama included-- ascribe to this matter, absolutely to believe we have a genuine witch in the house, who is in close alliance with the old gentleman. I have seen a gipsy vagabond; she has practised in hackneyed fashion the science of palmistry and told me what such people usually tell. My whim is gratified; and now I think Mr. Eshton will do well to put the hag in the stocks to-morrow morning, as he