r cards the sound seemed quite loud.

Then came a faint scraping sound, and he knew as well as if he had seen
it, that a key was taken up.

Keys? Yes, there were several there which the old lawyer used. Capel
recalled that the key of the plate closet had been placed there when
Preenham had handed it over.

He listened, but there was no further sound. Yes; the low breathing
could be heard, and it suddenly dawned upon Capel that Katrine had been
approaching him--there she was close at hand. He had only to stretch
forth his arms and the next instant she would have been folded to his
breast.

It was a hard fight, but he had read of a sudden awakening under such
conditions proving dangerous.

As he listened there was a faint rustling as the soft grey peignoir he
knew so well passed over the thick carpet towards the door; and if the
listener had any doubt, it was set aside by the light pat that he
heard--it was a hand touching the panel.

Capel waited a minute, during which he heard the dress sweep against the
edge of the door, and then the sound was quite hushed.

He knew what that meant, too; the door had been drawn to, and so he
found it as he stepped lightly there, opened it, and passed out on to
the great landing, where he strained his eyes upward to try and make out
the graceful draped figure as it went up the winding staircase to the
bedroom.

It was not so dark there, for a faint gloom--it could not be called
light--fell from the great ground-glass sky-light, at the top of the
winding staircase, like so much diluted darkness being poured down into
a well.

That great winding staircase suddenly seemed to him full of horror, as
he stood there. It had never struck him before, but now, how terrible
it seemed. That balustrade was so low. Suppose, poor girl, in her
sleep, she should lean over it, and fall down onto the white stones,
where the black fretwork of the glistening stove could be seen like a
square patch against the white slabs.

There was no reason for such fancies, but Paul Capel's hands grew wet
with a cold perspiration.

"I ought to have stopped her, and awakened her at any risk," he said, as
he still gazed up the great staircase; and then his heart seemed to
stand still, for there was a faint click, as of a lock shot back, and it
came either from on a level with where he stood, or from down below.

In an instant he realised what had happened: Katrine had been to fetch
the key of the lat