One of the men came out and listened, and I heard the other ask, with an oath, what it was.

I leant against the wall, holding my breath.
'Only that wench in one of her tantrums!' the man who had come out answered, applying an epithet to her which I will not set down, but which I carried to his account in the event of our coming face to face presently.

'She is quiet now.

She may hammer and hammer, but--' The rest I lost, as he passed through the doorway and went back to his place by the fire.

But in one way his words were of advantage to me.
I concluded that I need not be so very cautious now, seeing that they would set down anything they heard to the same cause; and I sped on more quickly, I had just gained the second floor landing when a loud noise below--the opening of the street door and the heavy tread of feet in the hall--brought me to a temporary standstill.