"No, no; it is not that."
"I know—I know!"
He dropped her hand and went into the great, open hall, where bronze statues in armor, life-sized, held lights on the points of their spears, as if on guard. Some lady had flung her shawl across the arm of one of these noble ornaments, where it fell in waves of rich coloring to the marble floor. Sir Noel seized upon this and wrapped the Lady Rose in its loose folds from head to foot. Then he drew her to a side of the terrace, where the two stood, minute after minute, waiting in silence. Once the baronet spoke.
"The windows of his room are just above us," he said. "I thought perhaps we might hear something."
"Ah me! How still they are!" sighed the girl, looking upward.
"We could not hear. No, no, we could not hear. The sashes are all closed," answered the baronet, sharply, for he felt the fear her words implied.
Rose drew close to her companion.
"I did not mean that. I only thought—"
"They are coming."
The baronet spoke in a whisper, but did not move. He shrunk now from hearing the news so impatiently waited for a moment before.