stirless.

A latch rattled, and at about three yards' distance a narrow door
opened, marked by a widening glow of light. A liveried footman--beyond
a doubt he who admitted the mistress of the house--entered, carrying an
electric candle, yawned with a superstitious hand before his mouth and,
looking to neither right nor left, turned away from Lanyard and trudged
wearily back to the household offices. At the far end of the long
hallway a door closed behind him--and Lanyard moved swiftly.

The door which had let the footman into the hall admitted to a spacious
foyer which set apart the entrance and--as the play of the electric
torch disclosed--a deep and richly furnished dining-room. To one side a
broad flight of stairs ascended: Lanyard went up with the activity of a
cat, making no more noise.

The second floor proved to be devoted mainly to a drawing-room, a
lounge, and a library, all furnished in a weird, inchoate sort of
magnificence, with money rather than with taste, if one might judge
fairly by the fitful and guarded beam of the torch. The taste may have
been less questionable than Lanyard thought; but the evidences of
luxurious tendencies and wealth recklessly wasted in their
gratification were irrefutable.

Lights were burning on the floor above, and a rumour of feminine voices
drifted down, interrupted by an occasional sibilant rustle of silk, or
a brief patter of high-heeled feet: noises which bore out the
conjecture that madame's maid was undressing and putting her to bed; a
ceremony apt to consume a considerable time with a woman of Liane's age
and disposition, passionately bent on preserving to the grave a
semblance of freshness in her charms. Lanyard reckoned on anything from
fifteen minutes to an hour before her couching would be accomplished
and the maid out of the way. Ten minutes more, and Liane ought to be
asleep. If it turned out otherwise--well, one would have to deal with
her awake. No need to be gravely concerned about that: to envisage the
contingency was to be prepared against it.

Believing he must possess his soul in patience for an indeterminable
wait, he was casting about for a place to secrete himself, when a
change in the tenor of the talk between mistress and maid was conveyed
by a sudden lift of half an octave in the latter's voice, sounding a
sharp note of protest, to be answered by Liane in accent of overbearing
anger.

One simply could not rest without knowing what that meant: L