Conscious that the papers he made a feint of reading were but a
cover for his watchfulness, she moved about in a matter-of-fact
way and did not spare him the clouds of dust which presently rose
before her broom. She could have managed it more deftly,--would
have done so at another time, but it was her express intention
just now to make him move back out of her way, if only to give her
an opportunity to disturb by a backward stroke of her broom the
folds of the carpet-rug and learn if she could what lay hidden
behind it.
But the judge was impervious to discomfort. He coughed and shook
his head, but did not budge an inch. Before she had begun to put
things in order, the clock struck the half-hour.
"Oh!" she protested, with a pleading glance his way, "I'm not half
done."
"There's another day to follow," he dryly remarked, rising and
taking a key from his pocket.
The act expressed his wishes; and she was proceeding to carry out
her things when a quick sliding noise from the wall she was
passing, drew her attention and caused her to spring forward in an
involuntary effort to catch a picture which had slipped its cord
and was falling to the floor.
A shout from the judge of "Stand aside, let me come!" reached her
too late. She had grasped and lifted the picture and seen--
But first, let me explain. This picture was not like the others
hanging about. It was a veiled one. From some motive of precaution
or characteristic desire for concealment on the part of the judge,
it had been closely wrapped about in heavy brown paper before
being hung, and in the encounter which ensued between the falling
picture and the spear of an image standing on a table underneath,
this paper had received a slit through which Deborah had been
given a glimpse of the canvas beneath.
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