Silence everywhere, complete and strange; except——
Yes—what was that?
She caught her breath and stopped; for as she was crossing the hall, past the pale maid, a slow moaning crept down the stairs like a trickle of blood,—a curious slow moaning, not human at all, more like some poor animal, dying hopelessly by inches in a trap.
Virginia....
Catherine stood struck with horror. That noise? Virginia? Just like an animal?
She looked round at Kate. Their white faces stared at each other. Kate’s lips moved. ‘Since this morning,’ came out of them. ‘Since early this morning. The master——’
She broke off, her pale lips remaining open.
Catherine turned and ran upstairs. She ran as one demented towards the moaning. It must be stopped, it must be stopped. Virginia must be saved, she couldn’t, she mustn’t be allowed to suffer like that, nobody should be allowed to suffer like that, hours and hours....
She ran along the passage to Virginia’s room, the same room where nineteen years ago Virginia herself had been born, but instead of getting nearer the moaning she seemed to be going away from it.
Where was Virginia, then? Where had they put her?