Good-night, Kitty, how wide awake you look." Catherine kissed her sister and sought her distant chamber.

She waited until all was silent in the house, then slowly and cautiously she unbarred her door and went downstairs.
In the large square entrance hall she took a white shawl from a stand.
She hung it across her arm, and still walking very softly reached the hall door, drew back its bolts, removed its chain, opened it, and went out into the porch.
Her mother had stood in that porch two nights fgo.

Catherine thought of her now.

The remembrance of her mother's face caused her to sigh and shiver as if she had been struck with sudden cold.

Leaving the hall door ajar she wrapped the white shawl about her shoulders, and then walked a little way across the wide gravel sweep in front of the house.
Her footsteps crunched the gravel, but her brother and sister slept in distant bedrooms and could hear nothing.