_"And if
Tony gets into difficulties?"_ Vividly she recalled Virginia's imploring
face, the beseeching note in her tired voice. And her own answer: _"If he
does, why, then I'll get him out of them if it's in any way possible."_ It
looked as though the time had come for the fulfilment of that promise. And
ignorant of what danger it could be which threatened Tony, unable to guess
the particular kind of difficulties in which he found himself involved at
the moment, she was powerless to help.
Slowly she undressed and got into bed. But not to sleep. She lay there with
wide-open eyes, every sense alert, listening for the least sound which
might herald Tony's return. She could hear the loud ticking of the tall old
clock on the staircase--tick-tack, tick-tack, tick-tack. Sometimes the
sound of it deceived her into thinking it was a footstep on the stairs, and
she would sit up eagerly in bed, listening intently. But always the
hoped-for sound resolved itself back into the eternal tick-tack of the
clock.
Twelve, one, two o'clock struck, bringing no sign of Tony's return, and
finally, wearied out, Ann fell into a brief slumber from which she awakened
with sudden violence to the knowledge that, at length, there was the sound
of an actual footfall in the house.
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