w and then the voices of the servants, or the distant sound of
a closing door, in the lower part of the house.

Just as I was turning away wearily from the window to go back to the
bedroom and make a second attempt to complete the unfinished entry in
my journal, I smelt the odour of tobacco-smoke stealing towards me on
the heavy night air. The next moment I saw a tiny red spark advancing
from the farther end of the house in the pitch darkness. I heard no
footsteps, and I could see nothing but the spark. It travelled along
in the night, passed the window at which I was standing, and stopped
opposite my bedroom window, inside which I had left the light burning
on the dressing-table.

The spark remained stationary for a moment, then moved back again in
the direction from which it had advanced. As I followed its progress I
saw a second red spark, larger than the first, approaching from the
distance. The two met together in the darkness. Remembering who
smoked cigarettes and who smoked cigars, I inferred immediately that
the Count had come out first to look and listen under my window, and
that Sir Percival had afterwards joined him. They must both have been
walking on the lawn--or I should certainly have heard Sir Percival's
heavy footfall, though the Count's soft step might have escaped me,
even on the gravel walk.

I waited quietly at the window, certain that they could neither of them
see me in the darkness of the room.

"What's the matter?" I heard Sir Percival say in a low voice. "Why
don't you come in and sit down?"

"I want to see the light out of that window," replied the Count softly.

"What harm does the light do?"

"It shows she is not in bed yet. She is sharp enough to suspect
something, and bold enough to come downstairs and listen, if she can
get the chance. Patience, Percival--patience."

"Humbug! You're always talking of patience."

"I shall talk of something else presently. My good friend, you are on
the edge of your domestic precipice, and if I let you give the women
one other chance, on my sacred word of honour they will push you over
it!"

"What the devil do you mean?"

"We will come to our explanations, Percival, when the light is out of
that window, and when I have had one little look at the rooms on each
side of the library, and a peep at the staircase as well."

They slowly moved away, and the rest of the conversation between them
(which had been conducted throughout in the sa