“I suppose it was your man,” he said suddenly, “who has alarmed the poor lady so much by his knocks and thumps at the doors and windows?”
Hemming’s face could not be seen distinctly in the darkness; but Clifford had a fancy that he was smiling as he answered:
“Very likely, sir.”
Clifford, who was growing more puzzled, more curious, every minute, turned abruptly away and walked round to the back door of the house, by which he had been admitted that morning.
He knocked two or three times with his stick against the door before he heard a window above his head softly opened. Looking up, he heard a whisper in Miss Theodora’s voice:
“Is that you, Mr. King?”
“Yes.”
“You are alone?”
“Why, yes, of course. I have just seen Nell.”
As he had expected, this answer brought the little lady down in the twinkling of an eye. He heard the bolts drawn, and a minute later he found himself dragged inside the door, while Miss Theodora, panting with her exertions, hurriedly fastened the door again.