ur was ebbing. She was conscious of nothing but the grasp in
which her hand was held--otherwise her mind seemed a blank. Her state
during the next few seconds was not unlike the state of some one under
the partial influence of an anaesthetic; a benumbing grip was laid on all
her faculties; and she knew nothing of how she moved or where she was
going.

Suddenly the trance cleared away. It might have lasted half an hour or
five seconds, for all she knew. But she was standing beside a small
marble statue in the farthest drawing-room, and her lips had on them a
slight sense of chill, as though they had just been laid to something
cold.

She pulled off the handkerchief from her eyes. Above her was Langham's
face, a marvellous glow and animation in every line of it.

'Have I done it?' she asked in a tremulous whisper.

For the moment her self-control was gone. She was still bewildered.

He nodded, smiling.

'I am so glad,' she said, still in the same quick whisper, gazing at
him. There was the most adorable _abandon_ in her whole look and
attitude. He could but just restrain himself from taking her in his
arms, and for one bright flashing instant each saw nothing but the
other.

The heavy curtain which had partially hidden the door of the little
old-fashioned powder-closet as they approached it, and through which
they had swept without heeding, was drawn back with a rattle.

'She has done it! Hurrah!' cried Mr. Flaxman. 'What a rush that last
was, Miss Leyburn! You left us all behind.'

Rose turned to him, still dazed, drawing her hand across her eyes. A
rush? She had known nothing about it!

Mr. Flaxman turned and walked back, apparently to report to his aunt,
who, with Lady Helen, had been watching the experiment from the main
drawing-room. His face was a curious mixture of gravity and the keenest
excitement. The gravity was mostly sharp compunction. He had satisfied a
passionate curiosity, but in the doing of it he had outraged certain
instincts of breeding and refinement which were now revenging
themselves.

'Did she do it exactly?' said Lady Helen eagerly.

'Exactly,' he said, standing still.

Lady Charlotte looked at him significantly. But he would not see her
look.

'Lady Charlotte, where is my sister?' said Rose, coming up from the back
room, looking now nearly as white as her dress.

It appeared that Agnes had just been carried off by a lady who lived on
Campden Hill close to the Leyburns, and who