Nearly an hour passed:--then sudden sounds of trampling feet and opening doors broke the silence which had settled over the villa.
Voices and steps approached, entered the glass passage.

Lucy sprang up.
Benson had flung the window looking on the balcony and the passage open, but had fastened across it the outside sun-shutters.

Lucy, securely hidden herself, could see freely through the wooden strips of the shutter.
Ah!--sad procession! Manisty came first through the passage, the sides of which were open to the balcony.

His sister was on his arm, veiled and in black.

She moved feebly, sometimes hesitating and pausing, and Lucy distinguished the wild eyes, glancing from side to side.