spell.

She was plainly listening intensely. Unconsciously she had drawn her lower
lip altogether between her teeth, and I well remember what a deathlike and
idiotic look the contortion gave her. My terror lest she should discover me
amounted to positive agony. She rolled her eyes stealthily from corner to
corner of the room, and listened with her neck awry at the door.

Then to my father's desk she went. To my great relief, her back was towards
me. She stooped over it, with the candle close by; I saw her try a key--it
could be nothing else--and I heard her blow through the wards to clear
them.

Then, again, she listened at the door, candle in hand, and then with long
tiptoe steps came back, and papa's desk in another moment was open, and
Madame cautiously turning over the papers it contained.

Twice or thrice she paused, glided to the door, and listened again intently
with her head near the ground, and then returned and continued her search,
peeping into papers one after another, tolerably methodically, and reading
some quite through.

While this felonious business was going on, I was freezing with fear lest
she should accidentally look round and her eyes light on me; for I could
not say what she might not do rather than have her crime discovered.

Sometimes she would read a paper twice over; sometimes a whisper no louder
than the ticking of a watch, sometimes a brief chuckle under her breath,
bespoke the interest with which here and there a letter or a memorandum was
read.