l, towering in her
sweeping robe and queenly pose, was made to be loved of men and gods!
Hero, carrying her vestal taper in the temple recesses, before ever
Leander had crossed the wave, could not have had a larger or more noble
form, a more noble and lovely face.

Well, if she chose to tie his arms he would have preferred to have them
tied, were it not for the maddening thought that more miscreants than
one might be within reach of her, and that they would, if skilled, find
the whole household an easy prey.

Madam Morin came back from the room with the open window, making
proclamation in the most excited French.

'What do they say?' asked Courthope of Madge.

The Morin girl was following close to her mother, and Jacques Morin was
eagerly discussing their information.

Madge passed Courthope in silence. They all went to the window to see;
Courthope, following in the most absurd helplessness, trailing the end
of his binding-cord behind him, brought up the rear of the little
procession. Madge walked straight on into his room, where Madam Morin
was again opening the window-shutters.

'They say,' said Madge to Courthope, 'that you have had an accomplice,
and that he is gone again; they saw his snow-shoe tracks.'

He begged her to make sure that the man was gone, to let him look at the
tracks himself and then to search the house thoroughly. Outside the
window the same chaotic sweep and whirl of the atmosphere prevailed. It
was difficult, even holding a lantern outside, to see, but they did see
that a track had come up to the window and again turned from it. After
that they all searched the house, Courthope allowed to be of the
company, apparently because he could thus be watched. The thief of the
night had come and gone; some silver and jewellery which had been
stored in a closet adjoining the bedroom of the sisters had been taken.

Courthope understood very little of the talk that went on. At length, to
his great relief, Madge gave her full attention to him in parley.

'Won't you believe that I know nothing whatever of the doings of this
sneak-thief?'

Some of her intense excitement had passed away, succeeded by distress,
discouragement, and perhaps perplexity, but that last she did not
express to him. She leaned against the wall as she listened to him with
white face.

'We never took in any one we didn't know anything about before, and we
never were robbed before.' She added, 'We treated you kindly; how could