The key----" "I know where he keeps it." She said no more, but turned, and regarding his thanks as little as if they had been the wind passing by her, she opened the door, crossed the living-room, and vanished up the staircase.

He followed her as far as the foot of the stairs, and there stood listening and shifting his feet and biting his nails in an agony of suspense.

She had not deigned to bid him watch for Basterga's coming, but he did so; his eyes on the outer door, through which the scholar must enter, and his tongue and feet in readiness to warn her or save himself, according as the pressure of danger directed the one or the other step.
Meanwhile his ears were on the stretch to catch what she did.

He heard her try the door of the room.

It was locked.