He turned swiftly to the dismayed girl.
"They are there," he said.

"Escape is cut off." Steps and voices resounded in the corridor.
"Quick," she said, "the closet yonder--you can hide." She understood the peril as well as he.
"And bring disgrace upon you when they caught me?
Never!" "Marteau, for God's sake, I love you," said the woman agonizingly.

"I cannot----" She stretched out her hands to him again.

Very lovely she looked, the peignoir falling from her white shoulders, the soft candle-light illuminating and yet concealing in its vague shadows the beauty of face and figure.

Marteau did not dare to dwell upon that.