pressure; it seemed to
retract her senseless challenge, and to say that she believed, for
Roderick, what he believed. But nevertheless, thought Rowland, the cry
had come, her heart had spoken; her first impulse had been to sacrifice
him. He had been uncertain before; here, at least, was the comfort of
certainty!

It must be confessed, however, that the certainty in question did little
to enliven the gloom of that formidable evening. There was a noisy
crowd about him in the room--noisy even with the accompaniment of the
continual thunder-peals; lodgers and servants, chattering, shuffling,
and bustling, and annoying him equally by making too light of the
tempest and by vociferating their alarm. In the disorder, it was some
time before a lamp was lighted, and the first thing he saw, as it was
swung from the ceiling, was the white face of Mrs. Hudson, who was being
carried out of the room in a swoon by two stout maid-servants, with Mary
Garland forcing a passage. He rendered what help he could, but when they
had laid the poor woman on her bed, Miss Garland motioned him away.

"I think you make her worse," she said.

Rowland went to his own chamber. The partitions in Swiss mountain-inns
are thin, and from time to time he heard Mrs. Hudson moaning, three
rooms off. Considering its great fury, the storm took long to expend
itself; it was upwards of three hours before the thunder ceased. But
even then the rain continued to fall heavily, and the night, which had
come on, was impenetrably black. This lasted till near midnight. Rowland
thought of Mary Garland's challenge in the porch, but he thought even
more that, although the fetid interior of a high-nestling chalet may
offer a convenient refuge from an Alpine tempest, there was no possible
music in the universe so sweet as the sound of Roderick's voice. At
midnight, through his dripping window-pane, he saw a star, and he
immediately went downstairs and out into the gallery. The rain had
ceased, the cloud-masses were dissevered here and there, and several
stars were visible. In a few minutes he heard a step behind him, and,
turning, saw Miss Garland. He asked about Mrs. Hudson and learned that
she was sleeping, exhausted by her fruitless lamentations. Miss Garland
kept scanning the darkness, but she said nothing to cast doubt on
Roderick's having found a refuge. Rowland noticed it. "This also have I
guaranteed!" he said to himself. There was something that Mary wished to
lea