And I caught her in my arms again, half-reclining on the bed.

"Sh!" she flung me off with a sudden impulse of frightened strength, "I hear someone."

"It's only the wind."

"Quick!... my God!"—


I snatched up a volume of Keats. It fell open at "St. Agnes Eve." I hurled myself into a chair ... gathering my breath I began aloud, as naturally as I could—

"St. Agnes' Eve! ah, bitter chill it was;

The owl, for all his feathers, was a-cold—"

At that very instant, Penton burst in at the door.

He paused a dramatic moment, his back to it, facing us.