Presently she raised her head quickly; a sound had reached her ear,--a
sound so slight that none but a high-strung ear could have caught it. It
was like a mouse giving a single scratch against a stone wall.
Rose coughed slightly.
On this a clearer sound was heard, as of a person scratching wood with
the finger-nail. Rose darted to the side of the room, pressed against
the wall, and at the same time put her other hand against the rim of one
of the panels and pushed it laterally; it yielded, and at the opening
stood Jacintha in her cloak and bonnet.
"Yes," said Jacintha, "under my cloak--look!"
"Ah! you found the things on the steps?"
"Yes! I nearly tumbled over them. Have you locked that door?"
"No, but I will." And Rose glided to the door and locked it. Then she
put the screen up between Josephine's room and the open panel: then she
and Jacintha were wonderfully busy on the other side the screen, but
presently Rose said, "This is imprudent; you must go down to the foot of
the stairs and wait till I call you."
Jacintha pleaded hard against this arrangement, and represented that
there was no earthly chance of any one coming to that part of the
chateau.
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