Now--I--I am frightened." She looked at him with eyes in which her doubts were mirrored.

She shivered, she who had been so joyous a moment before, and her hands, which hitherto had lain passive in his, returned his pressure feverishly.

"I fear now!" she exclaimed.

"I fear! What is it?
What has happened--in the last minute ?" He would have drawn her to him, seeing that her nerves were shaken; but the table was between them, and before he could pass round it, a sound caught his ear, a shadow fell between them, and looking up he discovered Basterga's face peering through the nearer casement.

It was pressed against the small leaded panes, and possibly it was this which by flattening the huge features imparted to them a look of malignity.