stop to
loosen it. And in that awful minute I heard some one breathing just
beside me. I had stooped to my gown, and I turned my head without
straightening--I couldn't have raised myself to an erect posture, for
my knees were giving way under me--and just at my feet lay the still
glowing end of a match!

I had to swallow twice before I could speak. Then I said sharply:

"Who's there?"

The man was so close it is a wonder I had not walked into him; his voice
was right at my ear.

"I am sorry I startled you," he said quietly. "I was afraid to speak
suddenly, or move, for fear I would do--what I have done."

It was Mr. Harbison.

"I--I thought you were--it is very late," I managed to say, with dry
lips. "Do you know where the electric switch is?"

"Mrs. Wilson!" It was clear he had not known me before. "Why, no; don't
you?"

"I am all confused," I muttered, and beat a retreat into the dining
room. There, in the friendly light, we could at least see each other,
and I think he was as much impressed by the fact that I had not
undressed as I was by the fact that he HAD, partly. He wore a hideous
dressing gown of Jimmy's, much too small, and his hair, parted and
plastered down in the early evening, stood up in a sort of brown brush
all over his head. He was trying to flatten it with his hands.

"It must be three o'clock," he said, with polite surprise, "and the
house is like a barn. You ought not to be running around with your arms
uncovered, Mrs. Wilson. Surely you could have called some of us."

"I didn't wish to disturb any one," I said, with distinct truth.

"I suppose you are like me," he said. "The novelty of the situation--and
everything. I got to thinking things over, and then I realized the
studio was getting cold, so I thought I would come down and take a look
at the furnace. I didn't suppose any one else would think of it. But
I lost myself in that pantry, stumbled against a half-open drawer, and
nearly went down the dumb-waiter." And, as if in judgment on me, at
that instant came two rather terrific thumps from somewhere below,
and inarticulate words, shouted rather than spoken. It was uncanny, of
course, coming as it did through the register at our feet. Mr. Harbison
looked startled.

"Oh, by the way," I said, as carelessly as I could. "In the excitement,
I forgot to mention it. There is a policeman asleep in the furnace room.
I--I suppose we will have to keep him now," I finished as airily as
poss