2. FROM TEN TO HALF-PAST ELEVEN P.M.A strange concurrence of phenomena now confronts us.
During the autumn in which the past scenes were enacted, Mr.
Springrove had ploughed, harrowed, and cleaned a narrow and shaded
piece of ground, lying at the back of his house, which for many
years had been looked upon as irreclaimable waste.
The couch-grass extracted from the soil had been left to wither
in the sun; afterwards it was raked together, lighted in the
customary way, and now lay smouldering in a large heap in the
middle of the plot.
It had been kindled three days previous to Mrs. Manston's
arrival, and one or two villagers, of a more cautious and less
sanguine temperament than Springrove, had suggested that the fire
was almost too near the back of the house for its continuance
