ot find it, but I did find
where it had gone. In the floor near the door, my hand encountered a
hole which had been covered up by a rug early in the evening, but which
I now distinctly remembered having pushed aside with my feet when I took
my seat there. This aperture was not large, but it was so deep that my
hand failed to reach to the bottom of it; and into this hole by some
freak of chance had slipped the small whistle I had so indiscreetly
taken into my hand. The mystery of the matches was less easy of
solution; so I let it go after a moment of indecisive thought and bent
my energies once again to listen, when suddenly and without the least
warning there rose from somewhere in the house a cry so wild and
unearthly that I started up appalled, and for a moment could not tell
whether I was laboring under some fearful dream or a still more fearful
reality.

A rushing of feet in the distance and an involuntary murmur of voices
soon satisfied me, however, on this score, and drawing upon every energy
I possessed, I listened for a renewal of the cry which was yet curdling
my blood. But none came, and presently all was as still as if no sound
had arisen to disturb the midnight, though every fibre in my body told
me that the event I had feared--the event of which I hardly dared
mention the character even to myself--had taken place, and that I, who
was sent there to forestall it, was not only a prisoner in my room, but
a prisoner through my own folly and my inordinate love of tea.

The anger with which I contemplated this fact, and the remorse I felt at
the consequences which had befallen the innocent victim whose scream I
had just heard, made me very wide-awake indeed, and after an ineffectual
effort to make my voice heard from the window, I called my usual
philosophy to my aid and decided that since the worst had happened and
I, a prisoner, had to await events like any other weak and defenceless
woman, I might as well do it with calmness and in a way to win my own
approval at least. The dupe of William and his sisters, I would not be
the dupe of my own fears or even of my own regrets.

The consequence was a renewed equanimity and a gentle brooding over the
one event of the day which brought no regret in its train. The ride with
Mr. Trohm, and the acquaintanceship to which it had led, were topics
upon which I could rest with great soothing effect through the weary
hours stretching between me and daylight. Consequently of M