It was between half-past four and five o’clock in the morning, and London for the most part slept.  Down in the street below, the roar of traffic, which hour after hour had grown less and less, had now died away.  Within the building itself every one seemed asleep.  Floor after floor looked exactly the same.  The lights along the corridors were burning dimly.  Every door was closed except the door of the service-room, in which a sleepy waiter lay upon a couch and dreamed of his Fatherland.  The lift had ceased to run.  The last of the belated sojourners had tramped his way up the carpeted stairs.  On the fifth floor, as on all the others, a complete and absolute silence reigned.  Suddenly a door was softly opened.  Virginia, dressed in a loose gown, and wearing felt slippers which sank noiselessly into the thick carpet, came slowly out from her room.  She looked all around and realized the complete solitude of the place.  Then she crossed the corridor swiftly, and without a moment’s hesitation fitted the key which she was carrying in her hand into the lock of Norris Vine’s room.  The door opened noiselessly.  She closed it behind her and paused to listen.  There was not a sound in the place, and the door on the left, which led into the sitting-room, was ajar.  She stepped in, and, after another moment’s hesitation, closed the door softly behind her and gently raised the blind.  The sunlight came streaming in.  There was no need for the electric light.  The sitting room, none too tidy, showed signs of its owner’s late return.  There was a silk hat and a pair of white kid gloves upon the table, and on the sideboard a half-empty glass of whiskey and soda.  Several cigarette ends were in the grate.  An evening paper lay upon the hearthrug.  She knew from these things that a few yards away Norris Vine lay sleeping.

Without hesitation, with swift and stealthy fingers, she commenced a close and careful scrutiny of every inch of the room.  In a quarter of an hour she had satisfied herself.  There was no hiding-place left which could possibly have escaped her.  The more dangerous part of her enterprise was to come.  Very softly she opened the door, leaving it ajar as she had found it.  She stood before the closed door of the bedroom.  Very slowly, and with the tips of her fingers, she turned the handle.  It opened without a sound.  She had no garments on that rustled, and the soles of her slippers were of thick felt.  She stood inside the room without having made the slightest sound.  She held her breath for a moment, and then summoning up her courage, she looked toward the bed.  The close-drawn curtains were unable to altogether exclude the early morning sunlight which streamed in through the chinks of the curtains and the uncovered part of the window.