I but slipped to the window and closed it from the outside, at the same time putting in a nail as mentioned before, so that it could not be raised, and then, raising my revolver in the air, I fired the remaining four bullets, forgeting the roof of the verandah which now has four holes in it.
Can I go on? Have I the strength to finish? Can I tell how the Theif cursed and tried to raise the window, and how every one came downstairs in their night clothes and broke in the library door, while carrying pokers, and knives, et cetera. And how, when they had met with no violence but only sulkey silence, and turned on the lights, there was Leila dressed ready to elope, and the Theif had his arms around her, and she was weeping? Because he was poor, although of good familey, and lived in another city, where he was a broker, my familey had objected to him. Had I but been taken into Leila’s confidence, which he considered I had, or at least that I understood, how I would have helped, instead of thwarting! If any parents or older sisters read this, let them see how wrong it is to leave any member of the familey in the dark, especialy in affaires de couer.
Having seen from the verandah window that I had comitted an error, and unable to bear any more, I crawled in the pantrey window again and went up stairs to my Chamber. There I undressed and having hid my weapon, pretended to be asleep.
Some time later I heard my father open the door and look in.
“Bab!” he said, in a stealthy tone.
I then pretended to wake up, and he came in and turned on a light.
“I suppose you’ve been asleep all night,” he said, looking at me with a searching glanse.
“Not lately,” I said. “I—wasn’t there a Noise or somthing?”
“There was,” he said. “Quite a racket. You’re a sound sleeper. Well, turn over and settle down. I don’t want my little girl to lose her Beauty Sleep.”
He then went over to the lamp and said: