seats
which were placed under the verandah, every word they said to each
other above a whisper (and no long conversation, as we all know by
experience, can be carried on IN a whisper) must inevitably reach my
ears. If, on the other hand, they chose to-night to sit far back
inside the room, then the chances were that I should hear little or
nothing--and in that case, I must run the far more serious risk of
trying to outwit them downstairs.

Strongly as I was fortified in my resolution by the desperate nature of
our situation, I hoped most fervently that I might escape this last
emergency. My courage was only a woman's courage after all, and it was
very near to failing me when I thought of trusting myself on the ground
floor, at the dead of night, within reach of Sir Percival and the Count.

I went softly back to my bedroom to try the safer experiment of the
verandah roof first.

A complete change in my dress was imperatively necessary for many
reasons. I took off my silk gown to begin with, because the slightest
noise from it on that still night might have betrayed me. I next
removed the white and cumbersome parts of my underclothing, and
replaced them by a petticoat of dark flannel. Over this I put my black
travelling cloak, and pulled the hood on to my head. In my ordinary
evening costume I took up the room of three men at least. In my
present dress, when it was held close about me, no man could have
passed through the narrowest spaces more easily than I. The little
breadth left on the roof of the verandah, between the flower-pots on
one side and the wall and the windows of the house on the other, made
this a serious consideration. If I knocked anything down, if I made
the least noise, who could say what the consequences might be?

I only waited to put the matches near the candle before I extinguished
it, and groped my way back into the sitting-room, I locked that door,
as I had locked my bedroom door--then quietly got out of the window,
and cautiously set my feet on the leaden roof of the verandah.

My two rooms were at the inner extremity of the new wing of the house
in which we all lived, and I had five windows to pass before I could
reach the position it was necessary to take up immediately over the
library. The first window belonged to a spare room which was empty.
The second and third windows belonged to Laura's room. The fourth
window belonged to Sir Percival's room. The fifth belonged to the
Cou