"Then he got it? He surely got it?"
"Oh, yes! I am very, very sure!"
"But how? How didst manage it, since he is not well enough to leave his room?"
"I went there!"
"You?"
"Yes, father; there was no other way, if I wished to put the paper into his own hand, as you bade me. So I went to his room."
"But, Sir Noel! Mrs. Mason! I marvel they let any one into his room so easily."
"Oh, they did not. I never dared to ask either of them," said Ruth, with a sweet, triumphant laugh, that sounded strangely in the lone sadness of the house. "I evaded them, and all the rest."
"But how?"
Ruth hesitated. The secret of the balcony stairs was too precious—she would keep it even from her father, as the angels guarded Jacob's ladder.