"Tell me the truth. What are you really about in this corridor at three in the morning?"
"I've told you."
"No, you haven't, Thusis."
After a silence I could hear her laughing under her breath.
"Mind your own business, Michael," she whispered; "I'm not going to confide in you."
"I want to know what brought you here," said I.
"What if you do wish to know? I am not obliged to inform you, am I?"
I heard her retreating, and I followed to the service stairs. Here a dim light came through a high window faintly silvering the stairs; and I saw the phantom figure of Thusis standing where she had suddenly arrested her steps on the stair-case, half-seeing, half-divining, my pursuit.
"Is that you, Michael?"
"Yes."