o his
side....

* * * * *

The governess came to claim Cicely. One of the footmen came to put
another log on the fire. Then the rite of removing the tea-table was
majestically performed--the ceremonial that had so often jarred on
Amherst's nerves. As she watched it, Justine had a vague sense of the
immutability of the household routine--a queer awed feeling that,
whatever happened, a machine so perfectly adjusted would work on
inexorably, like a natural law....

She rose to look out of the window, staring vainly into blackness
between the parted curtains. As she turned back, passing the
writing-table, she noticed that Cicely's irruption had made her forget
to post her letters--an unusual oversight. A glance at the clock told
her that she was not too late for the mail--reminding her, at the same
time, that it was scarcely three hours since Bessy had started on her
ride.... She saw the foolishness of her fears. Even in winter, Bessy
often rode for more than three hours; and now that the days were growing
longer----

Suddenly reassured, Justine went out into the hall, intending to carry
her batch of letters to the red pillar-box by the door. As she did so, a
cold blast struck her. Could it be that for once the faultless routine
of the house had been relaxed, that one of the servants had left the
outer door ajar? She walked over to the vestibule--yes, both doors were
wide. The night rushed in on a vicious wind. As she pushed the vestibule
door shut, she heard the dogs sniffing and whining on the threshold. She
crossed the vestibule, and heard voices and the tramping of feet in the
darkness--then saw a lantern gleam. Suddenly Knowles shot out of the
night--the lantern struck on his bleached face.

Justine, stepping back, pressed the electric button in the wall, and the
wide door-step was abruptly illuminated, with its huddled, pushing,
heavily-breathing group...black figures writhing out of darkness,
strange faces distorted in the glare.

"Bessy!" she cried, and sprang forward; but suddenly Wyant was before
her, his hand on her arm; and as the dreadful group struggled by into
the hall, he froze her to him with a whisper: "The spine----"

XXVI

WITHIN Justine there was a moment's darkness; then, like terror-struck
workers rallying to their tasks, every faculty was again at its post,
receiving and transmitting signals, taking observations, anticipating
orders, making her brain