[A Laodicean by Thomas Hardy]@TWC D-Link bookA Laodicean BOOK THE SECOND 53/88
'Ah--I perceive it is not what I expected to see.
Mr.Somerset was mistaken.' When the chief constable had left the house, Captain De Stancy shut the door and drew out the original photograph.
As he looked at the transcript of Dare's features he was moved by a painful agitation, till recalling himself to the present, he carefully put the portrait into the fire. During the following days Captain De Stancy's manner on the roads, in the streets, and at barracks, was that of Crusoe after seeing the print of a man's foot on the sand. V. Anybody who had closely considered Dare at this time would have discovered that, shortly after the arrival of the Royal Horse Artillery at Markton Barracks, he gave up his room at the inn at Sleeping-Green and took permanent lodgings over a broker's shop in the town above-mentioned.
The peculiarity of the rooms was that they commanded a view lengthwise of the barrack lane along which any soldier, in the natural course of things, would pass either to enter the town, to call at Myrtle Villa, or to go to Stancy Castle. Dare seemed to act as if there were plenty of time for his business. Some few days had slipped by when, perceiving Captain De Stancy walk past his window and into the town, Dare took his hat and cane, and followed in the same direction.
When he was about fifty yards short of Myrtle Villa on the other side of the town he saw De Stancy enter its gate. Dare mounted a stile beside the highway and patiently waited.
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