e into the outer room,
saying she would lock the door and make all snug for the night. I heard
her, as I thought, lock the door, then she came back into our room and
also locked the door leading from it into the tapestry room.

"'You needn't lock that too,' I said sleepily; 'if the tapestry door is
locked, we're all right!'

"'I think it's better,' said Mary quietly, and then we undressed, so far
as we could manage to do so in the extremely limited state of our toilet
arrangements, and went to bed.

"I fell asleep at once. Mary, she afterwards told me, lay awake for an
hour or two, so that when she did fall asleep her slumber was unusually
profound. I think it must have been about midnight when I woke suddenly,
with the feeling--the indescribable feeling--that something had awakened
me. I listened, first of all with _only_ the ear that happened to be
uppermost--then, as my courage gradually returned again, I ventured to
move slightly, so that both ears were uncovered. No, nothing was to be
heard. I was trying to compose myself to sleep again, persuading myself
that I had been dreaming, when again--yes most distinctly--there _was_ a
sound. A sort of shuffling, scraping noise, which seemed to come from
the direction of the passage leading from the tapestry room to the
garden. Fear made me selfish. I pushed Mary, then shook her gently, then
more vigorously.

"'Mary,' I whispered. 'Oh, Mary, _do_ wake up. I hear such a queer
noise.'

"Mary, poor Mary awoke, but she had been very tired. It was a moment or
two before she collected her faculties.

"'Where are we? What is it?' she said. Then she remembered. 'Oh yes--what
is the matter, Laura?'

"'Listen,' I said, and Mary, calmly self-controlled as usual, sat up in
bed and listened. The sound was quite distinct, even louder than I had
heard it.

"'Oh, Mary!' I cried. 'Somebody's trying to get in. Oh, Mary, what
_shall_ we do? Oh, I am so frightened. I shall die with fright. Oh, I
wish I had never come!'

"I was on the verge of hysterics, or something of the kind.

"Mary, herself a little frightened, as she afterwards confessed--in the
circumstances what young girl could have helped being so?--turned to me
quietly. Something in the very tone of her voice seemed to soothe me.

"'Laura dear,' she said gravely, 'did you say your prayers last night?'

"'Oh yes, oh yes, indeed I did. But I'll say them again now if you like,'
I exclaimed.

"Even then, Mary could hardl