it. The room feels close: I will open the window a little. The evening
is mild: it won't hurt you."
"There's no fear of that, Lootie," said Irene, wishing she had put off
going for the tea till it was darker, when she might have made her
attempt with every advantage.
I fancy Lootie was longer in returning than she had intended; for when
Irene, who had been lost in thought, looked up, she saw it was nearly
dark, and at the same moment caught sight of a pair of eyes, bright
with
a green light, glowering at her through the open window. The next
instant something leaped into the room. It was like a cat, with legs as
long as a horse's, Irene said, but its body no bigger and its legs no
thicker than those of a cat. She was too frightened to cry out, but not
too frightened to jump from her chair and run from the room.
It is plain enough to every one of my readers what she ought to have
done--and indeed Irene thought of it herself; but when she came to the
foot of the old stair, just outside the nursery door, she imagined the
creature running up those long ascents after her, and pursuing her
through the dark passages--_which, after all, might lead to no tower!_
That thought was too much. Her heart failed her, and turning from the
Madhuri Noah
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