and was soon asleep also.




IV


It was after two o'clock in the afternoon when he awoke. He must have
slept three hours. He looked at the sofa and saw the girl still sleeping
peacefully. He almost wished that she would never awake to all the
dreadful surprises that the house held for her. Her eye-lashes curved
long and dark on her cheek. Geoffrey turned away quickly.

He had awakened with a sudden disagreeable conviction that people have
been known to smother to death in closets. He stole quietly from the
library and ran up stairs with not a little anxiety. Indeed so great was
his dread that he would have been really relieved to see the closet door
standing open as an immediate proof that it did not hide a corpse. It
was, however, locked as he had left it. But as he hastened to undo it, a
voice from within reassured him:

[Illustration: HE LET MCVAY OUT OF THE CLOSET]

"Well, where have you been all this time?"

"You may be thankful I'm back at all. It did not look like it, at one
time."

"Where is Cecilia?"