this delay my lady fell upon her knees, in a wild hope, I think, to turn
her respite into a reprieve, but the beast cried out upon her, struck
down her outstretched hands, and, twisting his fingers in her soft dark
hair, dragged her incontinently out of the closet. The little whimper
she gave was awful....

And I stood there paralysed.

Five minutes, perhaps, had passed, slow-treading, pregnant minutes, when
my lord reappeared. He stood for a moment listening at the top of the
stairs, his chin on his shoulder. Then he stepped lightly down. His vile
face was pale and his eyes shifted uneasily. The devil looked out of
them yet, but Fright looked with him. Two paces brought the fellow
before the tallboy. He put up his hands as if to pull open a drawer,
when something about the whip he was holding caught his attention. For a
second he stared at it, muttering. Then, with a glance at the doorway,
he thrust the thing beneath the skirt of his coat and wiped it as it had
been a rapier....

Again he made to open a drawer, but the spell under which I lay seemed
to be lifted, and I shot out a hand and clapped him on the shoulder.

For all the notice he took, I might not have been there. The more
incensed, I shook the man violently....

* * * * *

"Repose," said Jonah, "is one thing, gluttonish sloth another. And even
if you have once again overestimated the capacity of your stomach, why
advertise your intemperance in a public place?" He lifted his hand from