And I held her and drew her after me, and the thing closed. The wall had swallowed us.
We stood on firm footing as if suspended in eternity. No sound from the swarming palace, not even possible noise made by the gendarme, reached us. It was like being earless, until she spoke in the hollow.
"Here's the door on the staircase, but it will not open!"
I groped over every inch of it with swift haste in the blackness.
"Hurry—hurry!" she breathed. "He may touch the spring himself—it moves instantly!"
"Does this open with a spring, too?"
"I don't know. Sophie didn't know!"
"Are you sure there is any door here?"
"She told me there was."
"This is like a door, but it will not move."