"Never mind ... no, take your arm away ... Let me walk alone a minute and I'll be all right ... I'll be all right in a minute ... it's just turned a trifle chilly, that's all." "Hush!" going down the path by the big house, Hildreth stopped, hesitated. "I'm--I'm not going to the little cottage to-night." "Then I'll say good-night!" "No, come on in and we'll sneak out to the kitchen and find something to eat ... aren't you hungry?" "A little bit. But I'm afraid we might wake Ruth and Darrie up." We tip-toed in. Hildreth searching for the matches, knocked the wash-basin to the floor. We stood hushed like mice. "Who's down there?" asked Darrie's voice, with a dash of hysteria in it ... of hysteria and fright. "Damn it, there's Darrie waked up." "Such a clatter would wake anyone up!" _"Who's there, I say!"_ "It's only me, Darrie ... I got hungry in the night and came up to the house to snatch a bite to eat." "Oh ... I'm coming down to join you, then." We saw Darrie standing at the top of the stairs, her eyes luminous and wide with emotion. She stood, rosy-bodied, in her night-dress, which was transparent in the light of the lamp she carried.... "Johnnie's here, too!" warned Hildreth. "Oh!" cried Darrie, and turned back, to re-appear in her kimono. "I'm sorry we waked you up. But I knocked that infernal basin down off the sink." "You didn't wake me. I was awake already. I haven't slept a wink." "Neither have we!" I responded. "What?" Darrie asked me in so startled, impulsive a manner that Hildreth and I laughed ... and she laughed a little, too ... and then grew grave again.... "It was such a beautiful night, Johnnie and I took a walk in the moonlight." Darrie looked from one to the other of us with a wide, staring look. "You needn't look that way, Darrie!" "Please, please, Hildreth!" "You and Penton have taken walks in the moonlight." "Hildreth, dear, I'm not rebuking you ... and you know my walks with Penton are all right, are harmless." "Yes, I know they are ... but you mustn't rebuke me, either." "I wasn't rebuking either you or Johnnie ... it isn't that I'm thinking of at all ... but everything has been so uncanny here to-night ... I could not sleep ... every little rustle of curtains, every creak or motion in the whole house vibrated through me ... something's going to happen to someone." "You're only upset because Penton's in jail," I explained. "No, that's not it ... that's nothing compared to this feeling ... this premonition--" "Come on, let's make some coffee ... in the percolator." "You girls sit down and I'll make it. I've been a cook several times in my career." Someone was knocking about in the dark, upstairs. We heard a match struck.... "There, we've waked Ruth, too." "What's the matter down there?" Ruth was calling. "Come on down and join us, Ruth,--we're having a cup of coffee a-piece." "It's only two o'clock ... what's everybody doing up so early? Has Penton come back?"