But at that he turned from her so abruptly that she marvelled, for she had not judged him a man averse from thanks.  But setting his manner down to the danger and the need of haste, she took the hint and controlling her feelings, prepared to follow him in silence.  Holding the lanthorn so that its light fell on the floor he listened an instant, then led the way on tip-toe down the dim corridor.  The house was hushed round them; if a board creaked under their feet, it seemed to her scared ears a pistol shot.  At the entrance to the gallery which was partly illumined by lights still burning in the hall below, the tutor paused anew an instant to listen, then turned quickly from it, and by a narrow passage on the right gained a back staircase.  Descending the steep stairs he guided her by devious turnings through dingy offices and servants’ quarters until they stood in safety before an outer door.  To withdraw the bar that secured it, while she held the lanthorn, was for the tutor the work of an instant.  They passed through, and he closed the door softly behind them.

After the confinement of her prison, the night air that blew on her temples was rapture to Julia; for it breathed of freedom.  She turned her face up to the dark boughs that met and interlaced above her head, and whispered her thankfulness.  Then, obedient to Mr. Thomasson’s impatient gesture, she hastened to follow him along a dank narrow path that skirted the wall of the house for a few yards, then turned off among the trees.

They had left the wall no more than a dozen paces behind them, when Mr. Thomasson paused, as in doubt, and raised his light.  They were in a little beech-coppice that grew close up to the walls of the servants’ offices.  The light showed the dark shining trunks, running in solemn rows this way and that; and more than one path trodden smooth across the roots.  The lanthorn disclosed no more, but apparently this was enough for Mr. Thomasson.  He pursued the path he had chosen, and less than a minute’s walking brought them to the avenue.

Julia drew a breath of relief and looked behind and before.  ’Where is the carriage?’ she whispered, shivering with excitement.

The tutor before he answered raised his lanthorn thrice to the level of his head, as if to make sure of his position.  Then, ‘In the road,’ he answered.  ’And the sooner you are in it the better, child, for I must return and replace the key before he sobers.  Or ’twill, be worse for me,’ he added snappishly, ‘than for you.’

’You are not coming with me? ’she exclaimed in surprise.

‘No, I—­I can’t quarrel with him,’ he answered hurriedly.  ’I—­I am under obligations to him.  And once in the carriage you’ll be safe.’

‘Then please to tell me this,’ Julia rejoined, her breath a little short.  ’Mr. Thomasson, did you know anything of my being carried off before it took place?’

‘I?’ he cried effusively.  ‘Did I know?’