tairs and is stopping no,
she passes the nursery door, she is coming my way. What shall I say to
her,--how account for my comfortable wrapper and the fact that I have
not yet been abed? Had I but locked my door! Could I but lock it now,
unseen and unheard before the nearing step should pause! But the very
attempt were folly; no, I must stand my ground and--Ah! the step
has paused, but not at my door. There is a third one on this hall,
communicating, as I knew, with a covered staircase leading to the attic.
It was at this she stopped and it was up this staircase she went as
warily and softly as its creaking boards would allow; and while I
marveled as to what had taken her aloft so late, I heard her steps over
my head and knew that she had entered the room directly above mine.

Striking a match, I consulted my watch. It was just ten minutes to
three. Hardly knowing what my duty was in the circumstances, I blew out
the match and stood listening while the woman who was such a mystery
to all her friends moved about overhead in much the same quick and
purposeful way as had put life into her shadow while she was in her own
room.

"Packing! Nothing less and nothing more," was my now definite decision.
"That is a trunk she is dragging forward. What a hurry she is in, and
how little she cares whether anybody hears her!"

So little did she care that during the next few minutes of acute
attention I distinguished the flinging down of article after article
on to the floor, as well as many other movements betraying haste or
irritation.

Suddenly I heard her give a bound, then the sound of a heavy lid falling
and then, after a minute or two of complete silence, the soft pat-pat of
her slippered feet descending the stair.

Half-past three.

Waiting till she was well down the second flight, I pushed my door ajar
and, flying down the hall, peered over the balustrade in time to see
her entering her room. She held a lighted candle in her hand and by its
small flame I caught a full glimpse of her figure. To my astonishment
and even to my dismay she was still in the gown she had refused to have
me unlace,--a rich yellow satin in which she must have shone resplendent
a few hours before. She had not even removed the jewels from her neck.
Whatever had occupied her, whatever had taken her hither and thither
through the house, moving furniture out of her way, lifting heavy boxes,
opening dust-covered trunks, had been of such moment to her a