She opened the door and listened, wondering dully how the conflict had gone.

She had lost count of that also.
The small window at the head of the stairs remained open as they had left it; and through it a ceaseless hum, as of a hive of bees swarming, poured in from the night, and told of multitudes astir.

The alarm-bell had ceased to ring, the wilder sounds of conflict had died down; in the parts about the Tertasse the combat appeared to be at an end.

But this might be either because resistance had ceased, or because the battle had rolled away to other quarters, or--which she scarcely dared to hope--because the foe had been driven out.
As she stood listening, she shivered in the cold air that came from the window.

She felt as if she had been beaten, and knew that this came of the shocks she had suffered and the long strain.