re in the morning when he
went for his tools? Supposing my landlord, Mr. Ledbury, who was a
magistrate, found out I had harboured a criminal, and gave me notice
just when I had repapered the parlour and put in a new back to the
kitchen range? Such a calamity was unthinkable. What happened to people
who compounded felonies? Was I compounding one? Why was not I sitting
down? What was I doing standing in the middle of the parlour with the
stable key in my hand, and, as I caught sight of myself in the glass,
with my mouth wide open?

I sat down again resolutely, hiding the key under the cushion, and
calmer thoughts supervened. After all, it was most improbable, almost
impossible, that I should be found out. And once the adventure was
safely over, when I had successfully carried it through, what
interesting accounts I should be able to give of it at luncheon parties
in London in the winter. My brothers would really believe at last that I
could act with energy and presence of mind. There was a rooted
impression in the minds of my own family that I was a flurried sort of
person, easily thrown off my balance, making mountains out of molehills
(this was especially irritating to me, as I have always taken a broad,
sane view of life), who always twisted my ankle if it could be twisted,
or lost my luggage, or caught childish ailments for the second time.
Where there is but one gifted member in a large and commonplace family,
an absurd idea of this kind is apt to grow from a joke into an _idee
fixe_.

It had obtained credence originally because I certainly had once in a
dreamy moment got my gown shut into the door in an empty railway
compartment on the far side. And as the glass was up on the station side
I had been unable to attract any one's attention when I wanted to
alight, and had had to go on to Portsmouth (where the train stopped for
good) before I could make my presence and my predicament known. This
trivial incident had never been forgotten by my family--so much so, that
I had often regretted the hilarious spirit of pure comedy at my own
expense which had prompted me to relate it to them.

Now was the time to show what metal I was made of. My spirits rose as I
felt I could rely on myself to be cautious, resourceful, bold. I sat on,
outwardly composed, but inwardly excited, straining my ears for a sign
that the fugitive was in the porch. I supposed I should presently hear a
light tap on my parlour window, which was close