"Am I weak now ?" She had recovered her composure; she looked straight past him and addressed Rowland: "Be so good as to show me the way out of this horrible place!" He helped her back into the corridor; Roderick followed after a short interval.

Of course, as they were descending the steps, came questions for Rowland to answer, and more or less surprise.

Where had he come from?
how happened he to have appeared at just that moment?
Rowland answered that he had been rambling overhead, and that, looking out of an aperture, he had seen a gentleman preparing to undertake a preposterous gymnastic feat, and a lady swooning away in consequence.

Interference seemed justifiable, and he had made it as prompt as possible.

Roderick was far from hanging his head, like a man who has been caught in the perpetration of an extravagant folly; but if he held it more erect than usual Rowland believed that this was much less because he had made a show of personal daring than because he had triumphantly proved to Christina that, like a certain person she had dreamed of, he too could speak the language of decision.