tened, straining all her soul in
a demand for certitude. As yet she had only dreaded to hear a
sound, had not indeed done so. Now at last there came a
footfall--was it true? It seemed not heavy enough for a man's
step, but a man on secret errand might tread light. She flung
herself upon the bed, her hands clasped, her lips moving in
supplication.

But now it came again, that was it--it was a footfall. It
approached along the hall, paused at the barricaded door. It was
there outside, stopping. She heard a breath drawn. The knob was
tried, silently at first, then with greater force. "Who is there?"
she quavered. "Who is there?" she repeated. No answer came.

"Jeanne!" she cried aloud. "Oh, Jeanne! Jeanne! Sally!"

There was once a sound of a distant door opening. No voice came.
Outside her own door now was silence.

She could endure no more. Though it were into flames, she must
escape from this place, where came one to claim a property, not a
woman; where a woman faced use, not wooing. God! And there was no
weapon, to assure God's vengeance now, here, at once.

Half-clad as she was, she ran to the window, and unhesitatingly let
herself out over the sill, clutching at the ivy as she did so. She
feared not at all what now was before her. It is doubtful whether
those who spring from a burning building dread the fall--they dread
only that which is behind them.

As she now half-slid from the window, she grasped wildly at the
screen of ivy, and as fate would have it caught one of its greater
branches. It held fast, and she swung free from the sill, which
now she could never again regain. She clung desperately, blindly,
swung out; then felt the roots of the ivy above her rip free, one
after another, far up, almost to the cornice. Its whole thin
ladder broke free from the wall. She was flung into space. Almost
at that instant, her foot touched the light lattice of the lower
story. The ivy had crawled up the wall face and followed the
cornice up and over somewhere, over the edge of the eaves, finding
some sort of holding ground. It served to support her weight at
least until she felt the ladder underfoot. At this in turn she
clutched as she dropped lower, but frail and rotten as it was, it
supported her but slightly. The next instant she felt, herself
falling.

[Illustration: She grasped wildly at the screen of ivy.]

She dropped out and down, struck heavily, and had but consciousness
enough