Cavely murmured, cherishingly.
"She will?" Tinman cracked his body to bend to her.
"Oh, I cannot say; do not distress me. Be friendly with papa," the girl
resumed, moving to escape.
"That is the essential," said Mrs. Cavely; and continued, when Annette
had gone, "The essential is to get over the next few months, miss, and
then to snap your fingers at us. Martin, I would force that man to sell
you Belle Vue under the price he paid for it, just to try your power."
Tinman was not quite so forcible. He obtained Belle Vue at auction price,
and his passion for revenge was tipped with fire by having it accorded as
a friend's favour.
The poisoned state of his mind was increased by a December high wind that
rattled his casements, and warned him of his accession of property
exposed to the elements. Both he and his sister attributed their
nervousness to the sinister behaviour of Van Diemen. For the house on the
beach had only, in most distant times, been threatened by the sea, and no
house on earth was better protected from man,--Neptune, in the shape of a
coastguard, being paid by Government to patrol about it during the hours
of darkness.
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