as he? What doing? On her over-excited nerves, all sorts of
possibilities came crowding. He must have gone downstairs again. In
that half-drunken state, where would his baffled frenzies lead him? And,
suddenly, she thought that she smelled burning. It went, and came again;
she got up, crept to the door, noiselessly turned the key, and, pulling
it open a few inches, sniffed.

All was dark on the landing. There was no smell of burning out there.
Suddenly, a hand clutched her ankle. All the blood rushed from her
heart; she stifled a scream, and tried to pull the door to. But his
arm and her leg were caught between, and she saw the black mass of his
figure lying full-length on its face. Like a vice, his hand held her;
he drew himself up on to his knees, on to his feet, and forced his way
through. Panting, but in utter silence, Gyp struggled to drive him
out. His drunken strength seemed to come and go in gusts, but hers was
continuous, greater than she had ever thought she had, and she panted:

"Go! go out of my room--you--you--wretch!"

Then her heart stood still with horror, for he had slued round to the
bed and was stretching his hands out above the baby. She heard him
mutter:

"Ah-h-h!--YOU--in my place--YOU!"

Gyp flung herself on him from behind, dragging his arms down, and,
clasping her hands together, held him fast. He twisted round in her arms
and sat down on the bed. In that moment of his collapse, Gyp snatched
up her baby and fled out, down the dark stairs, hearing him stumbling,
groping in pursuit. She fled into the dining-room and locked the door.
She heard him run against it and fall down. Snuggling her baby, who was
crying now, inside her nightgown, next to her skin for warmth, she stood
rocking and hushing it, trying to listen. There was no more sound. By
the hearth, whence a little heat still came forth from the ashes,
she cowered down. With cushions and the thick white felt from the
dining-table, she made the baby snug, and wrapping her shivering self in
the table-cloth, sat staring wide-eyed before her--and always listening.
There were sounds at first, then none. A long, long time she stayed like
that, before she stole to the door. She did not mean to make a second
mistake. She could hear the sound of heavy breathing. And she listened
to it, till she was quite certain that it was really the breathing of
sleep. Then stealthily she opened, and looked. He was over there, lying
against the bottom chair, i