She wandered about looking for a seat however humble but could find nothing more inviting than piles of brick and twisted iron. She noticed an open place in the floor and went over to it and peered down. There was a flight of steps ending in cimmerian darkness. Doubtless the vaults of the great families of the neighborhood were down there. She wondered if the spite of the Huns had driven them to demolish the very bones of the race they were unable to conquer. IV Suddenly she stiffened. A chill ran up her spine. She had an overwhelming sense of impending danger and stepped swiftly away from the edge of the aperture; then turned about, and faced Gora Dwight. CHAPTER XIV I "Oh," she said calmly, although her nerves still shuddered. "You must walk like a fairy. I didn't hear you." "One must pick one's way through rubbish." "Ghastly ruin, isn't it?" "Life is ghastly." Alexina made no reply lest she deny this assertion out of the wonder of her own experience. She guessed what Gora had come for and that she was feeling as elemental as she looked. She herself had recovered from that sudden access of horror but she moved still further from, that black and waiting hole. "Are you going to marry Gathbroke?" The gauntlet was down and Alexina felt a sharp sense of relief. She was in no mood for the subtle evasion and she had not the least inclination to turn up her eyes. She made up her mind however to save Gora's pride as far as possible. "Yes," she said. "You dare say that to me?" Alexina raised her low curved eyebrows. She seldom raised them but when she did she looked like all her grandmothers. "Dare? Did you expect me to lie? Is that what you wish?" Gora clutched her muff hard against her throat. (Alexina wondered if she had a pistol in it.) Her eyes looked over it pale and terrible. Alexina had the advantage of her in apparent calm, but there was no sign of confusion in those wide baleful irises with their infinitesimal pupils. "You knew that I loved him. That I had loved him for twelve years." "I _knew_ nothing of the sort. You had his picture on your mantel and you corresponded with him off and on but you never gave me a hint that you loved him. Twelve years! Good heaven! A friendship extending over such a period was conceivable; natural enough. But a romance! When such an idea did cross my mind I dismissed it as fantastic. You always seemed to me the embodiment of common sense." "There is no such thing. It is true--that I hardly believed it then--admitted it. But I knew we should meet again. He never had married. It looked like destiny when I did meet him. I nursed him--" She paused and her eyes grew sharp and watchful, Alexina's face showed no understanding and she went on, still watching.