strong enough, I am sure, to take my
place," he said, kindly. "And Geoffrey has some unreasoning horror of
the landlady which makes it very undesirable that he should see her
again, in his present state. I will go up to my room, and rest on the
bed. If you hear any thing you have only to come and call me."

An hour more passed.

Anne went to Geoffrey's door and listened. He was stirring in his bed,
and muttering to himself. She went on to the door of the next room,
which Julius had left partly open. Fatigue had overpowered him; she
heard, within, the quiet breathing of a man in a sound sleep. Anne
turned back again resolved not to disturb him.

At the head of the stairs she hesitated--not knowing what to do. Her
horror of entering Geoffrey's room, by herself, was insurmountable.
But who else was to do it? The girl had gone to bed. The reason which
Julius had given for not employing the assistance of Hester Dethridge
was unanswerable. She listened again at Geoffrey's door. No sound was
now audible in the room to a person in the passage outside. Would it be
well to look in, and make sure that he had only fallen asleep again?
She hesitated once more--she was still hesitating, when Hester Dethridge
appeared from the kitchen.

She joined Anne at the top of the stairs--looked at her--and wrote a
line on her slate: "Frightened to go in? Leave it to Me."

The silence in the room justified the inference that he was asleep.
If Hester looked in, Hester could do no harm now. Anne accepted the
proposal.

"If you find any thing wrong," she said, "don't disturb his brother.
Come to me first."

With that caution she withdrew. It was then nearly two in the morning.
She, like Julius, was sinking from fatigue. After waiting a little, and
hearing nothing, she threw herself on the sofa in her room. If any thing
happened, a knock at the door would rouse her instantly.

In the mean while Hester Dethridge opened Geoffrey's bedroom door and
went in.

The movements and the mutterings which Anne had heard, had been
movements and mutterings in his sleep. The doctor's composing draught,
partially disturbed in its operation for the moment only, had recovered
its sedative influence on his brain. Geoffrey was in a deep and quiet
sleep.

Hester stood near the door, looking at him. She moved to go out
again--stopped--and fixed her eyes suddenly on one of the inner corners
of the room.

The same sinister change which had passed over he