But she appeared to be as
indifferent to personal discomfort as she was to all external sounds.
Just as I had settled that my health would never survive such a wanton
infringement of all sanitary laws, Irene again sank on her knees and
buried her face in her hands. Now was my time. I crept noiselessly back
up the corridor until my hand was actually on the baize door. Then
excitement got the better of prudence; and, tearing it open, I rushed
wildly across the hall and up the staircase, never pausing until I was
safe in my own room, with the door locked behind me and the unlighted
bed-room candle still clutched firmly in my hand.
II.
Now, having already mentioned that I am a person of regular and strictly
conventional habits, it will be readily believed that I viewed these
extraordinary proceedings with unmitigated disgust. It was not to
encounter horrid experiences like this that I had left my comfortable
town house, where draughts and midnight adventures were alike unknown.
Before I came down to breakfast on the following morning, I had
fabricated a long story about pressing business which necessitated my
immediate return to town. Though ordinarily of a truthful disposition, I
was prepared to solemnly aver that the success of an important lawsuit
depended on my presence in London within the next twelve hours. I did
not even shrink from the prospect of having to produce circumstantial
evidence to convince Maitland of the truth of my assertion.
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