With a bound Mina's conscience awoke. She had heard what no ears save his had any right to hear. What if she were found? The conscience was not above asking that, but it was not below feeling an intolerable shame even without the discovery that it suggested as her punishment. Blushing red there in the dark, she slipped from the window-seat and groped her way to a chair. Here she flung herself down with a sob of excitement and emotion. He had promised. And the promise was broken in his coming. Now she heard their steps on the path outside; they were walking toward the house. Telling herself that it was impossible for her to move now, for fear she should encounter them, she sank lower in her arm-chair. "Well, where shall we go?" she heard Cecily ask in cold, stiff tones. "To the Long Gallery," said Harry. The next moment old Mason the butler was in the room again, this time in great excitement. "There's someone in the garden with her Ladyship, ma'am," he cried. "I think--I think it's my Lord!" "Who?" asked Mina, sitting up, feigning to be calm and sleepy. "Mr Harry, I mean, ma'am." "Oh! Well then, go and see." The old man turned and went out into the hall. "How are you, Mason?" she heard Harry say. "Her Ladyship and I have some business to talk about. May I have a sandwich afterward?" There he was, spoiling the drama, in Mina's humble opinion! Who should think of sandwiches now? "Do what Mr Tristram says, Mason," said Cecily. She heard them begin to mount the stairs. Jumping up, she ran softly to the door and out into the hall. Mason stood there with his candle, staring up after Cecily and Harry. He turned to Mina with a quizzical smile wrinkling his good-natured face. "You'd think it a funny time for business, wouldn't you, ma'am?" he asked. He paused a moment, stroking his chin. "Unless you'd happened to be in service twenty years with her late Ladyship. Well, I'm glad to see him again, anyhow." "What shall we do?" whispered Mina. "Are you going to bed, Mason?" "Not me, ma'am. Why, I don't know what mayn't happen before the morning!" He shook his head in humorous commentary on those he had served. "But there's no call for you to sit up, ma'am." "I'll thank you to mind your own business, Mason," said the Imp indignantly. "It would be most--most improper if I didn't sit up. Why, it's nearly midnight!" "They won't think of that up there," said he. The sound of a door slammed came from upstairs. Mina's eyes met Mason's for a moment by an involuntary impulse, then hastily turned away. It is an excellent thing to be out of the reach of temptation. The door was shut! "Give me a candle here in the library," said Mina with all her dignity. And there, in the library, she sat down to wonder and to wait. Mason went off after the sandwiches, smiling still. There was really nothing odd in it, when once you were accustomed to the family ways. XXVII BEFORE TRANSLATION