“Oh, my Beloved!  Shall I ever pray in vain?  Is there no mercy?” she cried, and the sound of her voice was like the wind moaning through rocky caverns.  “My heart is breaking!  My strength is almost at an end!  How much longer must I suffer this unspeakable misery?”

Clearly this sort of thing was not intended for strangers.  I stopped my ears and shrank as closely as I could into the shadow of the wall.  But I could not take my eyes off the girl for a moment.  Such an exhibition of wild passion I have never witnessed before or since.  As a dramatic effort it was superb; but all the time I was distinctly conscious of the absurd figure I should cut if any third person came on the scene.  Also certain warning twinges in my left shoulder reminded me that I was not in the habit of standing by open windows on bleak autumn nights.  Why Miss Latouche did not catch her death of cold I cannot imagine; for I could see the wind disordering her dark masses of hair and blowing back the Indian scarf from her bare shoulders.  But she appeared to be as indifferent to personal discomfort as she was to all external sounds.

Just as I had settled that my health would never survive such a wanton infringement of all sanitary laws, Irene again sank on her knees and buried her face in her hands.  Now was my time.  I crept noiselessly back up the corridor until my hand was actually on the baize door.  Then excitement got the better of prudence; and, tearing it open, I rushed wildly across the hall and up the staircase, never pausing until I was safe in my own room, with the door locked behind me and the unlighted bed-room candle still clutched firmly in my hand.

II.

Now, having already mentioned that I am a person of regular and strictly conventional habits, it will be readily believed that I viewed these extraordinary proceedings with unmitigated disgust.  It was not to encounter horrid experiences like this that I had left my comfortable town house, where draughts and midnight adventures were alike unknown.  Before I came down to breakfast on the following morning, I had fabricated a long story about pressing business which necessitated my immediate return to town.  Though ordinarily of a truthful disposition, I was prepared to solemnly aver that the success of an important lawsuit depended on my presence in London within the next twelve hours.  I did not even shrink from the prospect of having to produce circumstantial evidence to convince Maitland of the truth of my assertion.  Anything rather than undergo any further shocks to my nervous system.

Happily I was spared the necessity of perjuring myself to this extent.  When the breakfast bell rang, I descended and found that as usual very few of the guests, had obeyed the summons.  Mrs. Maitland was pouring out tea quite undisturbed by this irregularity, for Longacres is a house where attendance at the meals is never compulsory.