The door won't open from this side unless you have the key, miss," he
said.

"Not open from this side? Then I must have the key," said Kitty,
decidedly.

"Yes, miss." Steven's tone was perfectly respectful, and yet Kitty felt
that he was laughing at her in his sleeve. "Mr. Luttrell, perhaps, can
get you the key, miss."

"Yes, I suppose so. Put the box down, please. No, it need not be
uncorded until I know whether I shall stay the night."

The man obeyed her somewhat imperiously-uttered commands with an air of
careful submission. He then went down the dark stairs. Kitty heard his
footsteps for some little distance. Then, came the sound of a closing
door, and the click of a key in the lock. Then silence. Was she locked
in? She wished that the baize door had not been closed, and she chid
herself for nervousness. Hugo had shut it accidentally--it would be all
right when he came back. Excited and fearful as she was, she chose to
fortify herself against the unknown, by swallowing a biscuit and a
draught of black coffee. When this was done she felt stronger in every
way--morally as well as physically. She had been faint for want of food.

Would Hugo never come back? He was absent a quarter-of-an-hour, she
verified that fact by reference to a little enamelled watch which
Elizabeth had given her on her last birthday. She had taken off her hat
and cloak, and smoothed her rebellious locks into something like order
before he returned.

"Why have you been so long?" she said, rather plaintively, when the door
moved at last. "And, oh, please, if I am to stop here at all, will you
find out whether I can have the key of that door? The man who brought up
my boxes says it will not open from this side, and I cannot bear to feel
that I am shut in. May I go to papa, now?"

"You do not like being a prisoner, do you?" said Hugo, totally ignoring,
her last question. "So much the better for you--so much the better for
me."

Kitty recoiled a little. She did not know what had happened to him, but
she saw that his face expressed some mood which she had never seen it
express before. It was flushed, and his eyes glittered with an unnatural
light. And surely there was a faint odour of brandy in the room which
had not been there before his entrance! She recoiled from him, but she
was brave enough to show no other sign of fear.

"I don't know what you mean," she said, "but I know that I want to go to
my father. Please put an end to this myste