e the light."

But she pattered down the stairs beside me, kimono lifted well above her
pink-flowered slippers, one hand on the balustrade. The light glinted in
the white topaz that guarded her wedding ring, a richer jewel than any
diamond in the sight of one who knew the tender thought with which she
had set it there. No! The horror was not for her, clothed in her
wholesome goodness as in armor of proof. Surely for such as she the
Barrier stood unbreached and strong.

When I opened the front door, Bagheera darted in like a hunted cat. A
drift of mist entered with him. Looking out, I saw the night was heavy
with a low-hanging fog that scarcely rose to the tree tops; a
ground-mist that eddied in smoke-like waves of gray where our light fell
upon it. Such mists were common here, yet I shivered and shut it out
with relief. While I refastened the lock, Bagheera purred around my
ankles, pressing caressingly against me as if thanking me after the
manner of cats. I remembered this was not the first time he had shown
this anxiety and gratitude for shelter.

"Bagheera does love you," Phillida commented, stooping to pat him.
"Isn't it funny, though, that he never will go into your room? He is
always petting around you downstairs. When Cristina or I are doing up
your quarters, he will follow us right up to the door-sill, but we can't
coax him inside. Perhaps he doesn't like that perfume you always have
about."

A qualm ran through me, recalling the night I had taken the cat there by
force and its frantic escape. But I snapped the key fast and
straightened myself with sharp self-contempt. Had I fallen so low as to
heed the caprices of a pet cat? Was it not enough that I had fled from
my enemy after accepting the knowledge It had striven so long to force
upon me?

For I had that knowledge. When I had halted in the passage outside my
room, in the moment before Phillida had joined me, there had been
squarely set before my mental sight the place to seek the book.

"Phillida, there was a bookcase in this house when it was bought," I
said. "I believe it stood in my room before the place was altered. A
small stand; I remember putting my candle on its top the first night I
slept here. Have you seen it?"

Some tone in my question seemed to touch her expression with surprise as
she lifted her eyes to mine; or perhaps it was the hour I chose for the
inquiry.

"Oh, yes," she answered readily. "I supposed you had noticed it long
ago;