And now, as he sat alone on the edge of his bed, had come the climax of the unexpected.
The girl in the picture was not dead--not merely a lifeless shadow put there by the art of a camera.

She was alive! That was his first thought--his first impression.

It was as if he had come upon her suddenly, and by his presence had startled her--had made her face him squarely, tensely, a little frightened, and yet defiant, and ready for flight.

In that first moment he would not have disbelieved his eyes if she had moved, if she had drawn away from him and disappeared out of the picture with the swiftness of a bird.

For he--some one--had startled her; some one had frightened her; some one had made her afraid, and yet defiant; some one had roused in her that bird-like impulse of flight even as the camera had clicked.
He bent closer into the lampglow, and stared.