eat hardly raised above the
level of the floor, I escaped her, although it seemed to me for some
seconds, as I gazed on this spectre, that our eyes actually met.

I sat without breathing or winking, staring upon the formidable image which
with upstretched arm, and the sharp lights and hard shadows thrown upon her
corrugated features, looked like a sorceress watching for the effect of a
spell.

She was plainly listening intensely. Unconsciously she had drawn her lower
lip altogether between her teeth, and I well remember what a deathlike and
idiotic look the contortion gave her. My terror lest she should discover me
amounted to positive agony. She rolled her eyes stealthily from corner to
corner of the room, and listened with her neck awry at the door.

Then to my father's desk she went. To my great relief, her back was towards
me. She stooped over it, with the candle close by; I saw her try a key--it
could be nothing else--and I heard her blow through the wards to clear
them.

Then, again, she listened at the door, candle in hand, and then with long
tiptoe steps came back, and papa's desk in another moment was open, and
Madame cautiously turning over the papers it contained.

Twice or thrice she paused, glided to the door, and listened again intently
with her head near the ground, and then returned and continued her search,
peeping into papers one after another, tolerably methodically, and reading
some quite through.

While this felonious business was going on, I was freezing with fear lest
she should accidentally look round and her eyes light on me; for I could
not say what she might not do rather than have her crime discovered.

Sometimes she would read a paper twice over; sometimes a whisper no louder
than the ticking of a watch, sometimes a brief chuckle under her breath,
bespoke the interest with which here and there a letter or a memorandum was
read.

For about half an hour, I think, this went on; but at the time it seemed to
me all but interminable. On a sudden she raised her head and listened for a
moment, replaced the papers deftly, closed the desk without noise, except
for the tiny click of the lock, extinguished the candle, and rustled
stealthily out of the room, leaving in the darkness the malign and hag-like
face on which the candle had just shone still floating filmy in the dark.

Why did I remain silent and motionless while such an outrage was being
committed? If, instead of being a very nervous