What a future for
a chap in his early thirties to face! Not a sign of habitation anywhere,
not a vestige of it, save at the far edge of the Fens where a clump of
trees and thick shrubs told him that behind lay Withersby Hall. This,
intuition told him, was the home of Antoinette Brellier, the girl of the
train, of the wreck, and now of his dreams. Then his thoughts turned to
her. Gad! to bring a frail, delicate little butterfly to a place like
this was like trying to imprison a ray of sunshine in a leaden box!...
His eyes, rivetted upon where the clump of trees stood out against the
semi-darkness of the approaching dawn, saw of a sudden a light prick out
like a tiny flame, low down upon the very edge of the Fens. One light,
two, three, and then a very host of them flashed out, as though some
unseen hand had torn the heavens down and strewn their jewels broadcast
over the marshes. Instinctively he got to his feet. What on earth--? But
even as his lips formed the unspoken exclamation came yet another light
to join the others dancing and twinkling and flickering out there across
the gloomy marshlands.
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