The feeling was rendered still more piquant by a sharp curiosity that had been growing on him for some minutes past.  For why was this passage opened to-night?—­he had never seen it opened before.  And why was Jacintha lying sentinel at the foot of the stairs?

But this was not all.  Now that they were in the room both men became conscious of another sound besides the ladies’ voices—­a very peculiar sound.  It also came from behind the screen.  They both heard it, and showed, by the puzzled looks they cast at one another, that neither could make out what on earth it was.  It consisted of a succession of little rustles, followed by little thumps on the floor.

But what was curious, too, this rustle, thump—­rustle, thump—­fell exactly into the time of the music; so that, clearly, either the rustle thump was being played to the tune, or the tune sung to the rustle thump.

This last touch of mystery inflamed Edouard’s impatience beyond bearing:  he pointed eagerly and merrily to the corner of the screen.  Raynal obeyed, and stepped very slowly and cautiously towards it.

Rustle, thump! rustle, thump! rustle, thump! with the rhythm of harmonious voices.

Edouard got his head and foot into the room without taking his eye off Raynal.

Rustle, thump! rustle, thump! rustle, thump!

Raynal was now at the screen, and quietly put his head round it, and his hand upon it.

Edouard was bursting with expectation.

No result.  What is this?  Don’t they see him?  Why does he not speak to them?  He seems transfixed.

Rustle, thump! rustle, thump; accompanied now for a few notes by one voice only, Rose’s.

Suddenly there burst a shriek from Josephine, so loud, so fearful, that it made even Raynal stagger back a step, the screen in his hand.

Then another scream of terror and anguish from Rose.  Then a fainter cry, and the heavy helpless fall of a human body.

Raynal sprang forward whirling the screen to the earth in terrible agitation, and Edouard bounded over it as it fell at his feet.  He did not take a second step.  The scene that caught his eye stupefied and paralyzed him in full career, and froze him to the spot with amazement and strange misgivings.

CHAPTER XIX.

To return for a moment to Rose.  She parted from Edouard, and went in at the front door:  but the next moment she opened it softly and watched her lover unseen.  “Dear Edouard!” she murmured:  and then she thought, “how sad it is that I must deceive him, even to-night:  must make up an excuse to get him from me, when we were so happy together.  Ah! he little knows how I shall welcome our wedding-day.  When once I can see my poor martyr on the road to peace and content under the good doctor’s care.  And oh! the happiness of having no more secrets from him I love!  Dear Edouard! when once we are married, I never, never, will have a secret from you again—­I swear it.”