n, in its wide white
shroud. The curtain of the great window had not been drawn. It seemed to
Lady Walsingham that the moonbeams had grown more dazzling, that Snakes
Island was nearer and more distinct, and the outstretched arm of the old
tree looked bigger and angrier, like the uplifted arm of an assassin,
who draws silently nearer as the catastrophe approaches.

Cold, dazzling, almost repulsive in this intense moonlight and white
sheeting, the familiar landscape looked in the eyes of Lady Walsingham.
The sisters gradually grew more and more silent, an unearthly suspense
overhung them all, and Lady Mardykes rose every now and then and
listened at the open door for step or voice in vain. They all were
overpowered by the intenser horror that seemed gathering around them.
And thus an hour or more passed.

CHAPTER XXX

Hush!

Pale and silent those three beautiful sisters sat. The horrible quietude
of a suspense that had grown all but insupportable oppressed the guests
of Lady Mardykes, and something like the numbness of despair had reduced
her to silence, the dreadful counterfeit of peace.

Sir Bale Mardykes on a sudden softly entered the room. Reflected from
the floor near the window, the white moonlight somehow gave to his fixed
features the character of a smile. With a warning gesture, as he came
in, he placed his finger to his lips, as if to enjoin silence; and then,
having successively pressed the hands of his two sisters-in-law, he
stooped over his almost fainting wife, and twice pressed her cold
forehead with his lips; and so, without a word, he went softly from the
room.

Some seconds elapsed before Lady Walsingham, recovering her presence of
mind, with one of the candlesticks from the table in her hand, opened
the door and followed.

She saw Sir Bale mount the last stair of the broad flight visible from
the hall, and candle in hand turn the corner of the massive banister,
and as the light thrown from his candle showed, he continued, without
hurry, to ascend the second flight.

With the irrepressible curiosity of horror she continued to follow him
at a distance.

She saw him enter his own private room, and close the door.

Continuing to follow she placed herself noiselessly at the door of the
apartment, and in breathless silence, with a throbbing heart, listened
for what should pass.

She distinctly heard Sir Bale pace the floor up and down for some time,
and then, after a pause, a sound as i