Come what would, Eleanor should not be allowed to strangle it.
Absently he wandered down a little path leading from the terrace to the _podere_ below, and soon found himself pacing the dim grass walks among the olives.

The old villa rose above him, dark and fortress-like.

That was no longer her room--that western corner?
No--he had good cause to remember that she had been moved, to the eastern side, beyond his library, beyond the glass passage! Those were now Eleanor's windows, he believed.
Ah!--what was that sudden light?
He threw his head back in astonishment.
One of the windows at which he had been looking was flung open, and in the bright lamplight a figure appeared.

It stooped forward.

Eleanor! Something fell close beside him.