.
It makes me furious to see what you force him to put up with, the way
you speak to him, and look at him, as if he were your slave, or a
disobedient dog. His self-control is wonderful. I admire him more than I
can say."

"And is my self-control nothing?" he asked, without moving his hands
from his face.

"Yours? I don't see any exercise of yours. Circumstances have put us at
your mercy, you are rich and fortunate, and as insolent as you choose to
be. Self-control? I don't see any evidence of it."

"No?" he said, and turning, looked at her with a violence that might
have set her on the right track. Under his eyes she looked down and
probably in the instant forgot all that she had been saying and feeling,
for when he added: "I love you," her hands moved toward his, and she
made no resistance when he took her in his arms.

VII

McVay was left so long at the piano that he finally resorted to a series
of discords in order to recall himself to Holland's mind. His existence,
if he had only realised the fact, was so completely forgotten that he
might have made his escape with a good half hour to spare before either
of the others appreciated that the music had ceased. Not knowing this,
however, he did not dare stop his playing for an instant, until sheer
physical fatigue interfered. It was at this point that the discords
began, and brought Geoffrey into the hall.

The disposal of McVay for the night was a question to which Geoffrey had
given a great deal of thought. The cedar closet presented itself as a
safe prison, but in the face of McVay's repeated assertions that the air
had barely sufficed to support him during his former occupancy, it
looked like murder to insist. Geoffrey finally, when bed-time came,
locked him in a dressing-room off his own room. The window--the room was
on the third floor--gave on empty space, and against the only door he
placed his own bed, so that escape seemed tolerably difficult.

And to all other precautions, Geoffrey added his own wakefulness,
although toward morning weariness triumphed over excitement and he fell
asleep.

He was waked by an insistent knocking at his door, and he heard his name
called by Cecilia. He sprang up and found her standing in the hall. She
was wrapped in her sable coat, but shivering from cold or fear.

"There is some one getting into the house. I heard a window open and
steps on the piazza, below my room. What can it be?"

Geoffrey flung himself pa