some bird troubled in its sleep.

Of all that heedless human company, it seemed, she alone remained
awake.

Something in that circumstance proved almost resistlessly provocative
to her innate lust for adventure. For upward of two hours she had been
passive there in her chair, a prey to uneasy thoughts; now she was
weary with much thinking, but as far as ever from the wish to sleep;
never, indeed, more wide awake--possessed by a demon of restlessness,
consumed with desire to rise up and go out into the scented moonstruck
night and lose herself in its loneliness and--see what she should see.

Why not? No one need ever know. A staircase at her end of the
corridor--little used except by servants--led to a small door opening
directly upon the terrace. Providing it were not locked and the key
removed, there was no earthly reason why, if so minded, she should not
go quietly forth that way and drink her fill of the night's
loveliness.

To a humour supple to such temptation the tang of lawlessness in
a project innocent enough was irresistible. Besides, what was the
harm? What could be the objection, even were the escapade to be
discovered by misadventure?

Among other items in her collection of borrowed plumage she possessed
an evening wrap, somewhat out of fashion, but eminently adapted to her
purpose--long enough to cloak her figure to the ground, thus
eliminating all necessity for dressing against chance encounter with
some other uneasy soul. Worn with black stockings and slippers, it
would render her almost invisible in shadow.

In another minute, without turning on a light, she had found and
donned those several articles, and from her door was narrowly
inspecting the hallway before venturing a step across the threshold.

It was quite empty and silent, its darkness moderated only by the
single nightlight burning at the head of the main staircase.

Satisfied, she closed the door and crept noiselessly down the steps,
to find the side door not even locked.

Leaving it barely ajar, she stepped out beneath the stars, hesitated
for a moment of cautious reconnaissance, then darted across an open
space of moonlight as swiftly as the shadow of a cloud wind-sped
athwart the moon, and so gained the sheltering shadow of the high
hedge between the formal garden and tennis-court.

The dew-drenched turf that bordered the paths muffled her footsteps as
effectually as could be wished, and keeping circumspectly in shadow,
the be