started, and cried, "Who is there?"

I now regarded my case as desperate, and detection as inevitable. My
apprehensions, rather than my caution, kept me mute. I shrunk to the
wall, and waited in a kind of agony for the moment that should decide my
fate.

The lady was again roused. In answer to her inquiries, her husband said
that some one, he believed, was at the door, but there was no danger of
their entering, for he had locked it, and the key was in his pocket.

My courage was completely annihilated by this piece of intelligence. My
resources were now at an end. I could only remain in this spot till the
morning light, which could be at no great distance, should discover me.
My inexperience disabled me from estimating all the perils of my
situation. Perhaps I had no more than temporary inconveniences to dread.
My intention was innocent, and I had been betrayed into my present
situation, not by my own wickedness, but the wickedness of others.

I was deeply impressed with the ambiguousness which would necessarily
rest upon my motives, and the scrutiny to which they would be subjected.
I shuddered at the bare possibility of being ranked with thieves. These
reflections again gave edge to my ingenuity in search of the means of
escape. I had carefully attended to the circumstances of their entrance.
Possibly the act of locking had been unnoticed; but was it not likewise
possible that this person had been mistaken? The key was gone. Would
this have been the case if the door were unlocked?

My fears, rather than my hopes, impelled me to make the experiment. I
drew back the latch, and, to my unspeakable joy, the door opened.