d its noise.

Then once again all was still, and Gilda turned her aching head upon the
pillow. Though the room was not hot, and the atmosphere outside heavy
with frost, she felt positively stifled.

After a while this feeling of oppression became intolerable, she rose,
and in the darkness she groped for her fur-lined cloak which she wrapped
closely around her. Then she found her way across to the window and drew
aside the curtain. No light penetrated through the latticed panes: the
waning moon which four nights ago had been at times so marvellously
brilliant, had not yet risen above the horizon line. As Gilda's fingers
fumbled for the window-latch she heard a distant church clock strike the
midnight hour.

She threw open the casement. The sill was low and she leaned out peering
up and down the narrow street. It was entirely deserted and pitch dark
save where on the wall opposite the light from a window immediately
below her threw its feeble reflection. Vaguely she wondered who was
astir in the small hostelry. No doubt it was the tap-room which was
there below her, still lighted up, and apparently with its small
casement also thrown open, like the one out of which she was leaning.

For now, when the reverberating echo of the chiming clock had entirely
died away, she was conscious of a vague murmur of voices coming up from
below, confused at first and undistinguishable, but presently she heard
a click as if the casement had been pushed further open or mayhap a
curtain pulled aside, for after that the sound of the voices became more
distinct and clear.

With beating heart and straining ears Gilda leaned as far out of the
window as she could, listening intently: she had recognized her father's
voice, and he was speaking so strangely that even as she listened she
felt all the blood tingling in her veins.

"My son, sir," he was saying, "had, I am glad to say, sufficient pride
and manhood in him not to bear the full weight of your generosity any
longer. He sent a special messenger on horseback out to me this
afternoon. As soon as I knew that my daughter was here I came as fast as
a sleigh and the three best horses in my stables could bring me. I had
no thought, of course, of seeing you here."

"I had no thought that you should see me, sir," said a voice which by
its vibrating tones had the power of sending the hot blood rushing to
the listener's neck and cheeks. "Had I not entered the yard just as your
sledge turned in