He mooned about the place until he
was tired. He tried to occupy himself in his garden, but it was weary
work sowing crops for strange hands to reap, and so he gave it up.
Somehow the time wore on until at last it was Christmas Eve; the eve,
too, of the fatal day of Ida's decision. He dined alone that night as
usual, and shortly after dinner some waits came to the house and began
to sing their cheerful carols outside. The carols did not chime in at
all well with his condition of mind, and he sent five shillings out to
the singers with a request that they would go away as he had a
headache.
Accordingly they went; and shortly after their departure the great
gale for which that night is still famous began to rise. Then he fell
to pacing up and down the quaint old oak-panelled parlour, thinking
until his brain ached. The hour was at hand, the evil was upon him and
her whom he loved. Was there no way out of it, no possible way? Alas!
there was but one way and that a golden one; but where was the money
to come from? He had it not, and as land stood it was impossible to
raise it. Ah, if only that great treasure which old Sir James de la
Molle had hid away and died rather than reveal, could be brought to
light, now in the hour of his house's sorest need! But the treasure
was very mythical, and if it had ever really existed it was not now to
be found.
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