ight, her eyes
followed the street-lamps down to the shore. If one could recover from
such a nightmare as she had it would be by leaning out into and facing
this wide soft dark. These shapeless roofs just below her the night made
mysterious; and yet they covered people that she knew--her
friends--kind, safe people! There had been nights when the city, through
this very window, had seemed to her a savage place; but now the wicked
fear that stood behind her--the fear that had got inside her house, that
had slipped unseen through the circle of friends, that stood behind her
now, filling her own room with its shadowy menace--had transformed the
city into a very haven of security.

Oh, to escape out of this window into the innocent, sleeping city, away
from the horror at her back! To look in from the outside and be even
sure there was a horror! And if there was, to run away into the wide
soft dark! But how did she know, her fantastic idea persisted, that the
sapphire wouldn't follow her--the sapphire itself--the embodiment of her
fear? Then she dared not be driven out.

But there was another way to be rid of it. The real idea occurred to
her. How easy it would be to take it--that beautiful thing--and throw
it; throw it as hard as she could, and let the night take care of it.
The window was open, as if it stood ready, and there was the ring on the
table. She went to it, looked at it a moment without touching it,
holding her hands away.

Then with a little shiver she backed away from it and sat down on the
foot of the bed. She looked pale and little, as if the eye of the ring,
blazing under the feeble lamp, like the evil eye, had sapped her fire
and youth. The only thing about her of any size and color was the heavy
braid of hair fallen over her shoulder. She hugged her arms around her
updrawn knees, and resting her chin upon them eyed the sapphire bravely.

"What shall I do with you?" she somberly inquired of it. "You are a
dreadful thing. I don't know where you came from nor what you are, but I
am afraid--I am afraid you are--" She hesitated. The sapphire lay
shining like some idol set up for worship, and in spite of herself its
beauty moved her, if not to worship, at least to awe and fear.

"I suppose you know I can't throw you away," she murmured, "and yet I
can't keep you!" She pondered, chin in hand. To take it to Harry! That
seemed the natural thing to do--the simplest way to be rid of it. She
hesitated.

"If I o