When the dinner hour brought her, as usual, into personal contact with the admiral, she was at once struck by a change in him.  For the first time in her experience the old gentleman was silent and depressed.  He ate less than usual, and he hardly said five words to her from the beginning of the meal to the end.  Some unwelcome subject of reflection had evidently fixed itself on his mind, and remained there persistently, in spite of his efforts to shake it off.  At intervals through the evening, she wondered with an ever-growing perplexity what the subject could be.

At last the lagging hours reached their end, and bed-time came.  Before she slept that night Magdalen had cleaned the keys from all impurities, and had oiled the wards, to help them smoothly into the locks.  The last difficulty that remained was the difficulty of choosing the time when the experiment might be tried with the least risk of interruption and discovery.  After carefully considering the question overnight, Magdalen could only resolve to wait and be guided by the events of the next day.

The morning came, and for the first time at St. Crux events justified the trust she had placed in them.  The morning came, and the one remaining difficulty that perplexed her was unexpectedly smoothed away by no less a person than the admiral himself!  To the surprise of every one in the house, he announced at breakfast that he had arranged to start for London in an hour; that he should pass the night in town; and that he might be expected to return to St. Crux in time for dinner on the next day.  He volunteered no further explanations to the housekeeper or to any one else, but it was easy to see that his errand to London was of no ordinary importance in his own estimation.  He swallowed his breakfast in a violent hurry, and he was impatiently ready for the carriage before it came to the door.

Experience had taught Magdalen to be cautious.  She waited a little, after Admiral Bartram’s departure, before she ventured on trying her experiment with the keys.  It was well she did so.  Mrs. Drake took advantage of the admiral’s absence to review the condition of the apartments on the first floor.  The results of the investigation by no means satisfied her; brooms and dusters were set to work; and the house-maids were in and out of the rooms perpetually, as long as the daylight lasted.

The evening passed, and still the safe opportunity for which Magdalen was on the watch never presented itself.  Bed-time came again, and found her placed between the two alternatives of trusting to the doubtful chances of the next morning, or of trying the keys boldly in the dead of night.  In former times she would have made her choice without hesitation.  She hesitated now; but the wreck of her old courage still sustained her, and she determined to make the venture at night.

They kept early hours at St. Crux.  If she waited in her room until half-past eleven, she would wait long enough.  At that time she stole out on to the staircase, with the keys in her pocket, and the candle in her hand.