He made a convulsive effort to move, with an inward cry to God for support, and succeeded in staggering with outstretched palms against the wall, down the staircase, and blindly forward through the hall to the front door.

As yet he had been able to formulate only one idea--to escape before them, for it seemed to him that their contact meant the ruin of them both, of that house, of all that was near to him--a catastrophe that struck blindly at his whole visible world.

He had reached the door and opened it at the moment that the handle of the kitchen-door was turned.

He mechanically fell back behind the open door that hid him, while it let the cruel light glimmer for a moment on their clasped figures.

The door slipped from his nerveless fingers and swung to with a dull sound.