Above and around him hung a curtain of many-pointed ilex,
and before him a barberry bush, whose coral clusters caught the waning
light. In this snug nook he rested calmly, leaning against the ilex
trunk, and finished his little preparations for anything adverse to his
plans. In a belt which was hidden by his velvet coat he wore a short
dagger in a sheath of shagreen, and he fixed it so that he could draw it
in a moment, without unfastening the riding-coat. Then from the pockets
on either side he drew a pair of pistols, primed them well from a little
flask, and replaced them with the butts beneath the lappets. "Death for
at least three men," he muttered, "if they are fools enough to meddle
with me. My faith, these Darlings are grown very grand, on the strength
of the land that belongs to us!"
For he heard the popping of champagne corks, and the clink of abundant
silver, and tuning of instruments by the band, and he saw the flash of
lights, and the dash of serving-men, and the rush of hot hospitality;
and although he had not enough true fibre in his stomach to yearn for
a taste of the good things going round, there can be little doubt, from
what he did thereafter, that his gastric juices must have turned to
gall.
With all these sounds and sights and scents of things that he had no
right to despise, his patience was tried for an hour and a half, or at
any rate he believed so. The beautiful glow in the west died out, where
the sun had been ripening his harvest-field of sheafy gold and awny
cloud; and the pulse of quivering dusk beat slowly, so that a man might
seem to count it, or rather a child, who sees such things, which later
men lose sight of.
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