pass between us on my side of the gallery. I never thought of
anyone passing in front of her.

"I had picked out Section II as the place where she was to show
herself, because it was in a direct line with the course an arrow would
take from a sight behind the vase. I had bade her to look for me in the
court, and that would bring her forward to the balustrade in front. A
knot of scarlet ribbon at her breast was to distinguish her. But the
spot I had thus chosen for her, and the spot I had chosen for myself
had this disadvantage; that while I could see straight to my mark from
the peep-hole I have mentioned, I could see nothing to right or left of
that one line of vision. Why I did not realize the hazard involved in
this fact I do not know. Enough that my whole thought was centered on
the lookout I was keeping and it was with a shock of surprise I
suddenly saw the whole scene blotted from my view by the passing by of
some one on my own side of the gallery. This must have been the
Englishman who found his vantage-point from behind the other pedestal.
He went by quickly, and as the opening cleared once more, I beheld the
woman for whom I was waiting appear in the spot selected. For an
instant I was dazzled. I had not expected to see so noble a figure; and
in that instant a cloud came before my eyes, my resolution failed,--I
was almost saved--she was almost saved--when instinct got the better of
my judgment, and the arrow flew just as that young creature bounded
forward in her delight at seeing her steamer admirer watching her from
my side of the court.

"The shock of thus beholding a perfect stranger fall under my hand
benumbed me, but only for an instant. In the two weeks of intolerable
waiting through which I had just passed, I had so forcibly impressed
upon my consciousness the exact course I was to pursue from the instant
the arrow left the bow that I went about the same automatically.
Pulling out the edge of the tapestry, I slipped behind it, dropping my
bow in the doorway left open for my passage. This caused me no thought
and awakened no fears. But what took all the nerve I possessed, and
gave me in one awful moment a foretaste of the terror and despair
awaiting me in days to come, was the opening of the second door--the
one leading into the Curator's office.

"What might I not be forced to encounter when the knob to this was
turned! Some strol