We were on the roof of the ball-room. We felt the rhythmic motion of the dancing feet shake the building in time to the music. ‘A low melodious thunder’ buried beneath--above, the eternal silence of the white moon! We passed to the roof of the drawing-room. From it, upon one side, we could peep into the great gothic window of the hall, which rose high above it. We could see the servants passing and repassing, with dishes for the supper which was being laid in the dining-room under the drawing-room, for the hall was never used for entertainment now, except on such great occasions as a coming of age, or an election-feast, when all classes met. ‘We mustn’t stop here,’ said Clara. ‘We shall get our deaths of cold.’ ‘What shall we do, then?’ I asked. ‘There are plenty of doors,’ she answered--‘only Mrs Wilson has a foolish fancy for keeping them all bolted. We must try, though.’ Over roof after roof we went; now descending, now ascending a few steps; now walking along narrow gutters, between battlement and sloping roof; now crossing awkward junctions--trying doors many in tower and turret--all in vain! Every one was bolted on the inside. We had grown quite silent, for the case looked serious. ‘This is the last door,’ said Clara--‘the last we can reach. There are more in the towers, but they are higher up. What _shall_ we do? Unless we go down a chimney, I don’t know what’s to be done.’ Still her voice did not falter, and my courage did not give way. She stood for a few moments, silent. I stood regarding her, as one might listen for a doubtful oracle. ‘Yes. I’ve got it!’ she said at length. ‘Have you a good head, Wilfrid?’ ‘I don’t quite know what you mean,’ I answered. ‘Do you mind being on a narrow place, without much to hold by?’ ‘High up?’ I asked with a shiver. ‘Yes.’ For a moment I did not answer. It was a special weakness of my physical nature, one which my imagination had increased tenfold--the absolute horror I had of such a transit as she was evidently about to propose. My worst dreams--from which I would wake with my heart going like a fire-engine--were of adventures of the kind. But before a woman, how could I draw back? I would rather lie broken at the bottom of the wall. And if the fear should come to the worst, I could at least throw myself down and end it so. ‘Well?’ I said, as if I had only been waiting for her exposition of the case. ‘Well!’ she returned.--‘Come along then.’ I did go along--like a man to the gallows; only I would not have turned back to save my life. But I should have hailed the slightest change of purpose in her, with such pleasure as Daniel must have felt when he found the lions would rather not eat him. She retraced our steps a long way--until we reached the middle of the line of building which divided the two courts.