"I do not like to think of it," she answered. "I was obliged to undress, for it is mam'selle's rule to look into all the bedrooms the last thing after locking the house up. It was then ten o'clock. I waited until I heard the convent clock strike twelve, by which time I supposed everybody would be sound asleep. Then I lighted a candle and dressed myself, but I had to use my hands as softly as a spider spins its web, and my heart seemed to beat so loud that I was afraid the girls in the next room would hear it. I put a box of matches in my pocket, and crept along the corridors to the big salle-à-manger. The door of my bedroom creaked when I opened it, and I felt as if I must sink to the ground with fright. The salle-à-manger is a great, gloomy room even in day-time; it was dreadfully dark, horribly black, Herbert, and the sight of the stars shining through the window over the balcony made me feel so lonely that I could have cried. There was a mouse scratching in the room somewhere, and I got upon a chair, scarcely caring whether I made a noise or not, so frightened was I, for I hate mice. Indeed, if that mouse had not kept quiet after a while, I believe I should not be here now. I could not endure being alone in a great, dark room at that fearful hour of the night with a mouse running about near me. Oh, Herbert, how glad I was when I saw your lantern flash." "My brave little heart!" cried I, snatching up her hand and kissing it. "But the worst part is over. There are no ladders, no great black rooms now before us, no mice even." She slightly coloured without smiling, and I noticed an anxious expression in the young eyes she held steadfastly bent upon the table. "What thought is troubling you, Grace?" "Herbert, I fear you will not love me the better for consenting to run away with you." "Is that your only fear?" She shook her head, and said, whilst she continued to keep her eyes downcast: "Suppose Aunt Amelia refuses to sanction our marriage?" "She will not--she dare not!" I cried vehemently; "imprudent as we may seem, we are politic in this, Grace--that our adventure must _force_ your aunt into sending us her sanction." She looked at me, but her face remained grave. "Caudel," said I, "who is as much your guardian as I am, put the same question to me. But there is no earthly good in _supposing_. It is monstrous to suppose that your aunt will object. She hates me, I know, but her aversion--the aversion of that old woman of the world with her family pride and notions of propriety--is not going to suffer her to forbid our marriage after this. Yet, grant that her ladyship--my blessings upon her false front!--should go on saying no; are we not prepared?" "But if it has to come to my living with your sister, Herbert--" "It will come to nothing of the sort," I whipped out. "Would it not have been better for me," she continued, "to have remained under Aunt Amelia's care until I came of age?"