As she was about to pass him, he suddenly took her arm.

But, glancing towards the window, he noticed that the blind was not down.

He turned and blew out the candle in her hand.
"Ah, your Excellency!" she cried in tremulous affright.
"We could have been seen from outside," he explained.

She turned and saw the moonlight streaming in at the window, and lying like a silver coverlet upon the floor.

As if with a blind, involuntary instinct for protection, she stepped forward into the moonlight, and stood there motionless.