Had this good woman been less disturbed and not in so much of a hurry, she might have noted that the door of her literary guest's room was ajar, and stopped to ask why the lamp remained unlit.
For five minutes, for ten minutes, he watched and listened, passing continually to and fro from door to window.

But his vigilance remained unrewarded by any further movement in the hall, or by the sight of an approaching figure up the road.

He began to feel odd, and was asking himself what sort of fool-work this was, when a clatter of voices rose below, followed by heavy steps on the veranda.

One or two men were going out, and as it seemed to him the landlady too, for he heard her say just as the door closed: "Let me on ahead; she must see a woman's kind face first, poor child, or we shall not succeed in getting her in.

I know all about these wild ones.".