due consideration and precaution against rebuff. And such a wrong
may react disastrously upon the soul.

The door-bell rang, and she started to the shutters. Before she
reached them she hesitated, turned, and blew out the candle. Thus
it was that, though she saw some one standing in the wet below,
he, though he looked up, did not see her.

To reach his room he had to go by hers. She was still dressed. It
struck her that she might slip into the passage and just say that
she would be gone before he was up, and that their extraordinary
intercourse was over.

Whether she would have dared to do this was never proved. At the
critical moment Miss Bartlett opened her own door, and her voice
said:

"I wish one word with you in the drawing-room, Mr. Emerson,
please."

Soon their footsteps returned, and Miss Bartlett said:
"Good-night, Mr. Emerson."

His heavy, tired breathing was the only reply; the chaperon had
done her work.

Lucy cried aloud: "It isn't true. It can't all be true. I want
not to be muddled. I want to grow older quickly."

Miss Bartlett tapped on the wall.