"What was that?" Nigel said.
"Did you hear something?"
"Yes—a step."
"Oh, it's one of the men, no doubt. Shall I play to you a little more?"
"Can you without putting on the light? I'm afraid of the light now and—and how I used to love it!"
"I'll manage."
"But you'll have to take away your hand! Wait a minute. Oh, Ruby, it's terrible! To-night I feel like a man on the edge of an abyss, and as if, without a hand, I must fall—I—"
Isaacson heard a dry, horrid sound, that was checked almost at once.
"I never—never thought I should come to this, Ruby."
"Never mind, dearest. Any one—"