PLANS FOR THE EVENING The library at Rackham Park was a small, oblong room, with a big window upon the garden.

It opened into the hall on the one side and into the dining-room on the other, and in one corner the telephone was installed.
At half-past eight on the night of the dance at Harrel, this room was empty and in darkness.

But a second afterwards the door from the hall was opened, and Joan stood in the doorway, the light shimmering upon her satin cloak and the silver embroidery of her frock.

She cast an anxious look behind her and up the staircase.

It seemed as if some movement at the angle made by the stairs and the gallery caught her eye, for she stepped back for a clearer view, and listened with a peculiar intentness.