onnoitre.
The _gardien_ lay fast asleep on a bench; he could not do better than
sit on the stairs and wait; if the man awoke he would have to be
bribed. Lily's number was 45, a dozen doors down the passage. At one
o'clock the _gardien_ awoke. Mike entered into conversation with him,
gave him a couple of francs, bade him good-night, and went partly up
the next flight of stairs. Listening for every sound, expecting every
moment to hear a door open, he waited till the clocks struck the
half-hour. Then he became as if insane, and he deemed it would not be
enough if she were to disappoint him to set the hotel on fire and
throw himself from the roof. Something must happen, if he were to
remain sane, and, determined to dare all, he decided he would seek
her in her room and bear her away. He knew he would have to pass
through Mrs. Young's room. What should he do if she awoke, and,
taking him for a robber, raised the alarm?

Putting aside such surmises he turned the handle of her door as
quietly as he could. The lock gave forth hardly any sound, the door
passed noiselessly over the carpet. He hesitated, but only for a
moment, and drawing off his shoes he prepared to cross the room. A
night-light was burning, and it revealed the fat outline of a huge
body huddled in the bed-clothes. He would have to pass close to Mrs.
Young. He glided by, passing swiftly towards the further room,
praying that the door would open without a sound. It was ajar, and
opened without a sound. "What luck!" he thought, and a moment after
he stood in Lily's room. She lay upon the bed, as if she had fallen
there, dressed in a long travelling-cloak, her hat crushed on one
side.

"Lily, Lily!" he whispered, "'tis I; awake! speak, tell me you are
not dead." She moved a little beneath his touch, then wetting a towel
in the water-jug he applied it to her forehead and lips, and slowly
she revived.

"Where are we?" she asked. "Mike, darling, are we in Italy? ... I have
been ill, have I not? They say I'm going to die, but I'm not; I'm
going to live for you, my darling."

Then she recovered recollection of what had happened, and whispered
that she had failed to give her mother the opiate, but had
nevertheless determined to keep her promise to him. She had dressed
herself and was just ready to go, but a sudden weakness had come over
her. She remembered staggering a few steps and nothing more.

"But if you have not given your mother the opiate, she may awake at