The house was very quiet; for at present there was no one in it except the woman and the servant who had been up to my room.

The servant was a poor London drudge, who was left in charge by the owners of the house, and who had been forbidden to speak to me.

After a while I heard her heavy, shambling footsteps coming slowly up the staircase, and passing my door on her way to the attics above; they sounded louder than usual, and I turned my head round involuntarily.

A thin, fine streak of light, no thicker than a thread, shone for an instant in the dark corner of the wall close by the door-post, but it died away almost before I saw it.

My heart stood still for a moment, and then beat like a hammer.