Page:Randall Parrish--My Lady of the South.djvu/150



HE did not scream as she saw me, but her face went instantly white, and her hands were suddenly flung out in startled surprise.

"You—you here?"

The tension I had been through, the knowledge of what was concealed behind that door, gave me control of myself.

"Yes," I answered swiftly, "I made my escape from the store-room, and have been trying to find a way out of the house, but have not fancied a drop to the ground."

She stared in my face, her eyes wide from amazement.

"You have been in there?—in my room?"

"Is this your room?"

"Yes—why did you go there?"

"Merely because it was the first door I found unlocked."

"But it was not unlocked; see, I have the key here in my pocket."

"Yet you must have been mistaken, for the door was certainly unlocked when I came, even standing very slightly ajar."

From the expression of her face I doubted if she believed me, yet no sound but that of her rapid breathing [ 140 ]