e remained unshaken by the
letter. I believed it to be nothing more nor less than a heartless and
stupid "hoax."

The striking of the hall-clock roused me from my meditations. I counted
the strokes--midnight!

I rose to go up to my room. Everybody else in the farm had retired to
bed, as usual, more than an hour since. The stillness in the house was
breathless. I walked softly, by instinct, as I crossed the room to look
out at the night. A lovely moonlight met my view; it was like the
moonlight on the fatal evening when Naomi had met John Jago on the
garden walk.

My bedroom candle was on the side-table; I had just lighted it. I was
just leaving the room, when the door suddenly opened, and Naomi herself
stood before me!

Recovering the first shook of her sudden appearance, I saw instantly in
her eager eyes, in her deadly-pale cheeks, that something serious had
happened. A large cloak was thrown over her; a white handkerchief was
tied over her head. Her hair was in disorder; she had evidently just
risen in fear and in haste from her bed.

"What is it?" I asked, advancing to meet her.

She clung, trembling with agitation, to my arm.

"John Jago!" she whispered.

You will think my obstinacy invincible. I could hardly believe it, even
then!

"Where?" I asked.

"In the back-yard," she replied, "under my bedroom window!"

The emergency was far too serious to allow of any consideration for the
small proprieties of every-day life.

"Let me see him!" I said.

"I am here to fetch you," she answered, in her frank and fearless way.
"Come upstairs with me."

Her room was on the first floor of the house, and was the only bedroom
which looked out on the back-yard. On our way up the stairs she told me
what had happened.

"I was in bed," she said, "but not asleep, when I heard a pebble strike
against the window-pane. I waited, wondering what it meant. Another
pebble was thrown against the glass. So far, I was surprised, but not
frightened. I got up, and ran to the window to look out. There was John
Jago looking up at me in the moonlight!"

"Did he see you?"

"Yes. He said, 'Come down and speak to me! I have something serious to
say to you!'"

"Did you answer him?"

"As soon as I could catch my breath, I said, 'Wait a little,' and ran
downstairs to you. What shall I do?"

"Let _me_ see him, and I will tell you."

We entered her room. Keeping cautiously behind the window-curtain, I
looked out.

There he w