Though the relief of escaping from several distinct dangers had put her mind comparatively at ease for a short time, she had now begun to suffer a fresh uneasiness with reference to the young and handsome woman who came downstairs.

The fact that no one answered the workman's knock had seemed to her a sufficient proof that Bevis was not at home, and that the stranger must have come forth from the flat opposite his.

But she recollected the incident which had so alarmingly disturbed her and her lover yesterday.

Bevis did not then go to the door, and suppose--oh, it was folly! But suppose that woman had been with him; suppose he did not care to open to a visitor whose signal sounded only a minute or two after that person's departure?
Had she not anguish enough to endure without the addition of frantic jealousy?
She would not give another thought to such absurd suggestions.

The woman had of course come from the dwelling opposite.
Yet why might she not have been in Bevis's flat when he himself was absent?
Suppose her an intimate to whom he had entrusted a latch-key.
If any such connection existed, might it not help to explain Bevis's half-heartedness?
To think thus was courting madness.