t which streamed
through the reddish globes of the chandelier above the dining table. If
only the man did not stumble on his way up, the situation might be saved.

He was alert, deft, quick-witted, and light of foot as a panther. Who but
he would have remembered at such a moment to snatch up a compromising hat
and take it with him?

Annesley stood still, rigid in every muscle, fighting to control her
heart-throbs, that she might be ready to answer a flood of questions. She
dared not even let her thoughts rush ahead. It was all she could do to
face the present. The rest must take care of itself.

_He_ had said that she would "make a good actress." Now was the moment
to prove that he had judged her truly! She began to unfasten one of her
long gray gloves. A button was loose. She must give it a few stitches
to-morrow. Strange that there should be room for such a thought in her
mind. But she caught at it gladly.

It calmed her as she heard a shuffling tread of slippered feet along the
corridor; and she forced herself not to look up until she was conscious
that a shapeless figure in a dressing gown filled the doorway, like a
badly painted portrait too large for its frame.

"A nice time of night for you to be back!" barked the bronchitic voice
hoarsened by years of shut windows. "Give you an inch and you take an
ell! I told you half-past ten. Here it is eleven!"

Annesley looked up as if surprised. "Oh, Mrs. Ellsworth, you frightened
me!" she exclaimed. "I was delayed. But it won't be eleven for ten
minutes. This dining-room clock keeps such good time, you know. And I've
been in the house for a few moments. I thought I came so softly! I'm
sorry I waked you up."

"Waked me up!" repeated Mrs. Ellsworth. "I have not been to sleep. I
never can close my eyes when I know anybody is out and has got to come
back, especially a careless creature as likely as not to leave the front
door unlatched. That's why I said half-past ten at _latest_! If I don't
fall asleep before eleven I get nervous and lose my night's rest. You've
heard me say that twenty times, yet you have _no_ consideration!"

"This is the first time I've been out late," Annesley defended herself.
As she spoke she looked at Mrs. Ellsworth as she might have looked at a
stranger.

This fat old woman, with hard eyes, low, unintelligent forehead, and
sneering yet self-indulgent mouth, had been for five years the mistress
of her fate. The slave had feared to speak lest