ed to go her
own way without interference. But oh, for eyes to see into the room into
which she had withdrawn with the lawyer! For eyes to see into her heart!
For eyes to see into the future!

His suspense presently became so great that he could no longer control
himself. Throwing up the window, he thrust his head out into the rain and
felt refreshed by the icy drops falling on his face and neck. But the
roar of the waterfall rang too persistently in his ears and he hastily
closed the window again. There was something in the incessant boom of
that tumbling water which strangely disturbed him. He could better stand
suspense than that. If only the wind would bluster again. That, at least,
was intermittent in its fury and gave momentary relief to thoughts
strained to an unbearable tension.

Afterwards, only a short time afterwards, he wondered that he had given
himself over to such extreme feeling at this especial moment. Her
appearance when she came quietly back, with Mrs. Deo chatting and smiling
behind her, was natural enough, and though she did not speak herself, the
tenor of the landlady's remarks was such as to show that they had been
conversing about old days when the two little girls used to ransack her
cupboards for their favorite cookies, and when their united pranks were
the talk of the town.

As they passed down the hall, Mrs. Deo garrulously remarked:

"You were never separated except on that dreadful day of the schoolhouse
burning. That day you were sick and--"

"Please!" The word leaped from Georgian in terror, and she almost threw
her hand against the other's mouth. "I--I can't bear it."

The good lady paused, gurgled an apology, and stooped for the tray which
disfigured the sightliness of the neatly kept hall. Then, nodding towards
a maid whom she had placed on watch at the extreme end of the hall, she
muttered some assurances as to this woman's faithfulness, and turned away
with a cordial good night. Georgian watched her go with a strange and
lingering intentness, or so it seemed to Ransom; then slowly entered her
room and locked the door.

The incidents of the day, so far as she was concerned, appeared to be at
an end.

CHAPTER XI

HALF-PAST ONE IN THE MORNING

Nothing now held Mr. Ransom to his room. The two women in whose fate he
was so nearly concerned, his sister-in-law and his wife, had both retired
and there was no other eye he feared. Indeed, he courted an interview
with the l