The Squire¹ was a shade better the next morning; but Mr. Leeson, not two miles away, lay at the point of death. Fever had claimed him for its prey², and he continued to be wildly delirious³, and did not know in the least what he was doing. Thus two men, each unknown to the other, but who widely influenced the characters of this story, lay within the Great Shadow.  
Evelyn Wynford continued to efface⁴ herself. This was the first time in her whole life she had ever done so; but when Lady Frances appeared, punctual to the hour, to take her place at her husband’s side, the little girl glided⁵ from the room.
 
It was early on the following morning, when the mistress of the Castle was standing⁶ for a few bewildered moments in her sitting-room⁷, her hand pressed to her forehead, her eyes looking across the landscape, tears dimming their brightness, that a child rushed into her presence.
 
“Go away, Evelyn,” she said. “I cannot speak to you.”
 
“Tell me one thing,” said Evelyn; “is he better?”
 
“Yes.” 392
“Is he out of danger?”
 
“The doctors think so.”
 
“Then, Aunt Frances, I can thank God; and what is more, I—even I, who am such an awfully⁸ naughty girl—can love God.”
 
“I don’t like cant,” said Lady Frances; and she turned away with a scornful expression on her lips.
 
Evelyn sprang to her, clutched both her hands, and said excitedly:
 
“Listen; you must. I have something to say. It was I who did it!”
 
“You, Evelyn—you!”
 
Lady Frances pushed the child from her, and moved a step away. There was such a look of horror on her face that Evelyn at another moment must have recoiled⁹ from it; but nothing could daunt¹⁰ her now in this hour of intense repentance¹¹.
 
“I did it,” she repeated—“oh, not meaning to do it! I will tell you; you must listen. Oh, I have been so—so wicked, so—so naughty, so stubborn, so selfish! I see myself at last; and there never, never was such a horrid¹² girl before. Aunt Frances, you shall listen. I loaded the gun, for I meant to go out and shoot some birds on the wing. Uncle Edward doubted that I could do it, and I wanted to prove to him that I could; but I was prevented from going, and I forgot about the gun; and the night before last I ran away. I ran to Jasper. When you locked me up in my room I got out of my sitting-room window.”
 
“I know all that,” said Lady Frances. 393
“I went to Ja............