Within a few minutes after Hermas had flung himself out of window into the roadway, Phoebicius walked into his sleeping-room.

Sirona had had time to throw herself on to her couch; she was terribly frightened, and had turned her face to the wall.

Did he actually know that some one had been with her?
And who could have betrayed her, and have called him home?
Or could he have come home by accident sooner than usual?
It was dark in the room, and he could not see her face, and yet she kept her eyes shut as if asleep, for every fraction of a minute in which she could still escape seeing him in his fury seemed a reprieve; and yet her heart beat so violently that it seemed to her that he must hear it, when he approached the bed with a soft step that was peculiar to him.
She heard him walk up and down, and at last go into the kitchen that adjoined the sleeping-room.

In a few moments she perceived through her half-closed eyes, that he, had brought in a light; he had lighted a lamp at the hearth, and now searched both the rooms.
As yet he had not spoken to her, nor opened his lips to utter a word.
Now he was in the sitting-room, and now--involuntarily she drew herself into a heap, and pulled the coverlet over her head--now he laughed aloud, so loud and scornfully, that she felt her hands and feet turn cold, and a rushing crimson mist floated before her eyes.

Then the light came back into the bed-room, and came nearer and nearer.