Three friends, therefore, out of four, whom the
young man had parted with forty minutes ago, were now extinguished;
remained, therefore, 40 per cent. (a large per centage for Williams to
leave); remained, in fact, himself and his pretty young friend, the little
grand-daughter, whose childish innocence was still slumbering without fear
for herself, or grief for her aged grand-parents. If _they_ are gone
for ever, happily one friend (for such he will prove himself, indeed, if
from such a danger he can save this child) is pretty near to her. But
alas! he is still nearer to a murderer. At this moment he is unnerved for
any exertion whatever; he has changed into a pillar of ice; for the
objects before him, separated by just thirteen feet, are these:--The
housemaid had been caught by the murderer on her knees; she was kneeling
before the fire-grate, which she had been polishing with black lead. That
part of her task was finished; and she had passed on to another task,
viz., the filling of the grate with wood and coals, not for kindling at
this moment, but so as to have it ready for kindling on the next day. The
appearances all showed that she must have been engaged in this labor at
the very moment when the murderer entered; and perhaps the succession of
the incidents arranged itself as follows:--From the awful ejaculation and
loud outcry to Christ, as overheard by the journeyman, it was clear that
then first she had been alarmed; yet this was at least one and a-half or
even two minutes after the door-slamming.
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