to Frejus?" said Rose hastily. "Oh, yes! I
promise."

"You are a good girl," said Aubertin. "You have a will of your own. But
you can submit to age and experience." The doctor then kissed her, and
bade her farewell.

"I leave for Paris at six in the morning," he said. "I will not try your
patience or hers unnecessarily. Perhaps it will not be three weeks ere
she sees her child under her friend's roof."

The moment Rose was alone, she sat down and sighed bitterly. "There
is no end to it," she sobbed despairingly. "It is like a spider's web:
every struggle to be free but multiplies the fine yet irresistible
thread that seems to bind me. And to-night I thought to be so happy;
instead of that, he has left me scarce the heart to do what I have to
do."

She went back to the room, opened a window, and put out a white
handkerchief, then closed the window down on it.

Then she went to Josephine's bedroom-door: it opened on the tapestried
room.

"Josephine," she cried, "don't go to bed just yet."

"No, love. What are you doing? I want to talk to you. Why did you say
promise? and what did you mean by looking at me so? Shall I come out to
you?"

"Not just yet," said Rose; she then glided into the corridor, and passed
her mother's room and the doctor's, and listened to see if all was
quiet. While she was gone Josephine opened her door; but not seeing Rose
in the sitting-room, retired again.

Rose returned softly, and sat down with her head in her hand, in a calm
attitude belied by her glancing eye, and the quick tapping of her other
hand upon the table.

Presently she raised her head quickly; a sound had reached her ear,--a
sound so slight that none but a high-strung ear could have caught it. It
was like a mouse giving a single scratch against a stone wall.

Rose coughed slightly.

On this a clearer sound was heard, as of a person scratching wood with
the finger-nail. Rose darted to the side of the room, pressed against
the wall, and at the same time put her other hand against the rim of one
of the panels and pushed it laterally; it yielded, and at the opening
stood Jacintha in her cloak and bonnet.

"Yes," said Jacintha, "under my cloak--look!"

"Ah! you found the things on the steps?"

"Yes! I nearly tumbled over them. Have you locked that door?"

"No, but I will." And Rose glided to the door and locked it. Then she
put the screen up between Josephine's room and the open panel: then she
and Jacintha were wond