To exclude the dull roll of the thunder was less easy, for the night was oppressively hot, and behind the cloak the casement was open.

Gradually, too, another sound, the hissing fall of heavy rain, began to make itself heard, and to mingle with the regular breathing which proved that Madame St.Lo slept.
Assured of this fact, the Countess presently heaved a sigh, and slipped from the bed.

She groped in the darkness for her cloak, found it, and donned it over her night gear.

Then, taking her bearings by her bed, which stood with its head to the window and its foot to the entrance, she felt her way across the floor to the door, and after passing her hands a dozen times over every part of it, she found the latch, and raised it.
The door creaked, as she pulled it open, and she stood arrested; but the sound went no farther, for the roofed gallery outside, which looked by two windows on the courtyard, was full of outdoor noises, the rushing of rain and the running of spouts and eaves.

One of the windows stood wide, admitting the rain and wind, and as she paused, holding the door open, the draught blew the cloak from her.