MARSHLAND AND SEA 277 



and, Mr Dasliwood noted, with his eyes ever 

 wandering to the door. 



After breakfast he wrote the letter we have seen 

 to JVIr French and put it in his pocket, with a view 

 to finding some means of sending it later; then 

 he took his charge out for a walk on the salt 

 marshes. After dinner, with an old pack of cards, 

 which he discovered in the dresser drawer, they 

 played beggar-my-neighbour, and dusk closed 

 on that terrible day and found them sitting, 

 without candles or hghts of any sort, by the embers 

 of the fire, Mr Giveen still amiable and even mildly 

 cheerful. 



Had he been obstreperous or quarrelsome, 

 had he even asked questions as to Bobby's inten- 

 tions, had he been irritable, the situation would 

 have been more bearable; but he sat uncannily 

 composed and amiable, and giving no hint of 

 dissatisfaction with his position and no sign of 

 revolt or evasion, with the exception of the tell- 

 tale wandering of his eye every now and then 

 towards the door. 



Bobby's watch had run down, and IVIr Giveen 

 had no timepiece, time being to him of no account, 

 and, at an indeterminable hour, Mr Dashwood, 

 yawning, dragged his bed to the door by the fight 

 of the flickering fire, and his prisoner retired to 

 the bedroom and, judging by the sound of snoring 

 that soon filled the cottage, to sleep. 



It was long past midnight when Mr Dashwood 

 was aroused from sleep by cries from the night 



