The hour for signing the will had been set at nine o'clock, but it was surely long past that time now.

No, the clock in the office is striking; it is just nine.

Would she recognize the summons?
Assuredly; for with the last stroke she lifts the latch of her door and comes out.
She has exchanged her dark dress for a light one and has arranged her hair in the manner he likes best.

But he scarcely notes these changes in the interest he feels in her intentions and the manner in which she proceeds to carry out her purpose.
She does not advance at once to the staircase, but creeps first to her sister's door, where she stands listening for a minute or so in an attitude of marked anxiety.

Then, with a gesture expressive of repugnance and alarm, she steps quickly forward and disappears down the staircase without vouchsafing one glance in his direction.
His vision of her as she looked in that short passage from room to staircase was momentary only, but it left him shuddering.