the intricacy of the
very good housekeeping of Frau G----, there was no necessity to disturb
the Hausmeister; but nothing could lessen the wail of the door which let
them in with a groan, and closed behind them with a bang that was worthy
of the occasion. It was the man's place to have lessened the noise by
laying a restraining hand upon the lock, in accordance with the printed
directions nailed against the main panel, but Rosina felt intuitively
that this was no time to remind him of the fact.

With the closing of the door they were left in a darkness thorough and
complete.

Rosina's voice: "You said you had wax tapers."

Von Ibn's voice: "No, I have not say so."

Rosina's accents of distress: "Haven't you any tapers?"

Von Ibn's voice, dully: "Yes, I have, but I have not say so before."

Rosina, entreatingly: "Then do please light one."

Dead silence.

She began to walk towards the stairs that she could not see; as she did
so she heard his keys jingling, and knew from the sound that he must be
hunting the wherewithal for illumination. He struck a match and adjusted
it in the small hole at the end of the box, and as he did so he called:

"Stop! wait for me to come also."

She paused and looked back towards him. By the white light of the little
taper his face appeared absolutely ghastly, and his heavy eyelids
drooped in a way that pierced her heart.

"I think," he said, when he was beside her, "that it is better that I go
to-morrow very early, and that we meet no more."

At that she was forced to put her hand against the wall in the seeking
for some support without herself. They were upon the first step of the
stairs, she leaning against one side wall and he standing close to the
other. After he had spoken he crossed to her and his voice altered.

"If you had loved me," he said, "here--now--I should have kissed you,
and all would have been for us as of the skies above."

"Oh, look out!" she exclaimed.

He was close above her.

"You are afraid of me?"

"No, it is the wax; you are letting it drip on us both."

"It should stop upon the box," he said shortly.

She began to mount the stairs, pulling off her gloves as she went. One
fell, and he stooped quickly for it, with the result that he dropped the
match-box. Again they were alone in the darkness.

"This is an awful place," he said irritably, feeling blindly for what
was lost. "That I am on my knees to a match-box this night," he added
savagely.