That lynx-eyed person had begun to suspect.  She had seen Tommy harnessing his horse and had not been satisfied with his explanation—­that he was taking tomatoes to Blackwater to be sent off by the Liverpool steamer.

So to watch events, without seeming to watch them, the housekeeper (when the other servants had gone off to the rehearsal) had stolen upstairs to her room in the West tower overlooking the back courtyard.

But Price had been more than a match for her.  Creeping up behind, she had locked the door of the top landing, and now the “little cat” might scream her head off through the window, and (over the noises of the wind and the workmen) it would be only like “tom” shrieking on the tiles.

“We must be quick, though,” said Price, tumbling into my travelling-trunk as many of my clothes as it would hold.

When it was full and locked and corded she said: 

“Wait,” and stepped out on the landing to listen.

After a moment she returned saying: 

“Not a sound!  Now for it, my lady.”

And then, tying her handkerchief over her head to keep down her hair in the wind, she picked up the trunk in her arms and crept out of the room on tiptoe.

The moment had come to go, yet, eager as I had been all evening to escape from my husband’s house, I could scarcely tear myself away, for I was feeling a little of that regret which comes to us all when we are doing something for the last time.

Passing through the boudoir this feeling took complete possession of me.  Only a few hours before it had been the scene of my deepest degradation, but many a time before it had been the place of my greatest happiness.

"You are my wife.  I am your real husband.  No matter where you are or what they do with you, you are mine and always will be."

Half-closing the door, I took a last look round—­at the piano, the desk, the table, the fireplace, all the simple things associated with my dearest memories.  So strong was the yearning of my own soul that I felt as if the soul of Martin were in the room with me at that moment.

I believe it was.

“Quick, my lady, or you’ll lose your steamer,” whispered Price, and then we crossed the landing (which was creaking again) and crept noiselessly down a back staircase.  We were near the bottom when I was startled by a loud knocking, which seemed to come from a distant part of the house.  My heart temporarily stopped its beating, but Price only laughed and whispered: 

“There she is!  We’ve fairly caught her out, the cat.”

At the next moment Price opened an outer door, and after we had passed through she closed and locked it behind us.

We were then in the courtyard behind the house, stumbling in the blinding darkness over cobble-stones.

“Keep close to me, my lady,” said Price.

After a few moments we reached the drive.  I think I was more nervous than I had ever been before.  I heard the withered leaves behind me rustling along the ground before the wind from the sea, and thought they were the footsteps of people pursuing us.  I heard the hammering of the workmen and the music of the orchestra, and thought they were voices screaming to us to come back.