'This seems like a treachery,' he whispered. 'It is none. Listen? There is little time! Do you hear me?'
She kept her peace.
'Do you hear me?' he asked. 'Before God, I am true to you.'
When still she did not speak he hissed with vexation and raised one hand above his head. He sank his forehead in swift meditation.
'Listen,' he said again. 'To take you I have only to tear down this arras. Do you hear?'
He bared his head once more and said aloud to himself,
'But perhaps she is even in the chapel.'
He stepped across the corridor, lifted a latch and looked in at double doors that were just beside her. Then, swiftly, he moved back once more to cover the stairhead.
'God! God! God!' she heard him mutter between his teeth.
'Listen!' he said again. 'Listen! listen! listen!' The words seemed to form part of an eager, hissed refrain. He was trembling with haste.