en up her hard German books, and was also busy with
French histories of revolution, which did indeed fascinate her, though,
as she half perceived, solely by the dramatic quality of the stories
they told. And at length the morning of her fear had come.

When he left home Mutimer bade her not expect him till the following
day. She spent the hours in loneliness and misery. Mr. Wyvern called,
but even him she begged through a servant to excuse her; her mother
likewise came, and her she talked with for a few minutes, then pleaded
headache. At nine o'clock in the evening she went to her bedroom. She
had a soporific at hand, remaining from the time of her illness, and in
dread of a sleepless night she had recourse to it.

It seemed to her that she had slept a very long time when a great and
persistent noise awoke her. It was someone knocking at her door, even,
as she at length became aware, turning the handle and shaking it.
Being alone, she had locked herself in. She sprang from bed, put on
her dressing-gown, and went to the door. Then came her husband's voice,
impatiently calling her name. She admitted him.

Through the white blind the morning twilight just made objects visible
in the room; Adela afterwards remembered noticing the drowsy pipe of a
bird near the window. Mutimer came in, and, without closing the door,
began to demand angrily why she had locked him out. Only now she quite
shook off her sleep, and could perceive that there was something unusual
in his manner. He smelt strongly of tobacco, and, as she fancied, of
spirits; but it was his staggering as he moved to draw up the blind that
made her aware of his condition. She found afterwards that he had driven
all the way from Belwick, and the marvel was that he had accomplished
such a feat; probably his horse deserved most of the credit. When he
had pulled the blind up, he turned, propped himself against the
dressing-table, and gazed at her with terribly lack-lustre eyes. Then
she saw the expression of his face change; there came upon it a smile
such as she had never seen or imagined, a hideous smile that made her
blood cold. Without speaking, he threw himself forward and came towards
her. For an instant she was powerless, paralysed with terror; but
happily she found utterance for a cry, and that released her limbs.
Before he could reach her, she had darted out of the room, and fled
to another chamber, that which Alice had formerly occupied, where she
locked herse