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He took her hand, and preceded by a female domestic bearing candles, conducted her up a broad marble staircase; they entered an apartment sumptuously furnished it was the bridal chamber. The footstep fell noiseless upon the thick and yielding carpet; each chair was a gilded throne, and each sofa a luxurious divan, cushioned with purple velvet.
Here and there a stray dog, bent over a bone, slunk away at the approach of a roisterer's footstep; more rarely a passenger, whose sober or stealthy gait whispered of business rather than pleasure, moved cowering from street to street, under such shelter as came in his way.
But the road was not much frequented and there was not a footstep nor a track in the deep snow. Only the smoke from neighboring chimneys gave any evidence of life. Once they heard sleigh-bells in the distance and concluded that the main road was being used. "I wish I could get out to feed the chickens," said Nettie after a while. "I am afraid they will be hungry."
"I groan and bellow in pain until you can hear me a mile. It is my way. She can take her place on the cold slab of a surgeon's table, feel the crash of steel through nerve and muscle and artery without a groan. I might rave, commit suicide or murder in a tempest of passion, but mark my word, she will lift her lithe figure erect and, with soft, even footstep, go her way."
But it was plain to the rest that it was a conversation between a sentry and an officer. "I heard a footstep, senor capitan!" cried the man. "Quidada! Take care! It's very near." There was a moment's pause. "You must be mistaken," said the officer. "I am not mistaken," repeated the man firmly. "Santa Maria, my ears do not deceive me. You said to be watchful, for you have heard firing."
A light sound, as of some fairy footstep among the flowers, came upon his ears, and turning instantly to the direction from whence the sound proceeded, he saw what his heart had previously assured him of, namely, that it was his Flora who was coming. Yes, it was she; but, ah, how pale, how wan how languid and full of the evidences of much mental suffering was she.
The clicking presently ceased, a light footstep was heard, then the voice of the official stenographer: "What is wanted?" "Open the door, please." "Whom do you wish to see." "I desire to speak with Miss Wallen." "Miss Wallen declines." "I have business to transact." "Mr. Wells is not here, and Miss Wallen is not empowered to act for him. You will have to wait and see him to-morrow."
Acting on this consideration they lingered, Elizabeth-Jane's face being arranged to an expression of preternatural composure, and the young Scot, at every footstep in the street without, looking from under the granary to see if the passer were about to enter and declare himself their summoner.
Then was the darkness doubly horrible. I sat paralyzed with my utter helplessness, though fear, thank Heaven, did not strike me! I could hear no footstep; no sound of any kind but that low, rushing breathing; but it now was certain that whatever the thing was, it was not alone. From every side I heard it closer, closer until finally I felt the hot, fetid breath in my very face.
And she let him soothe her, and would gladly have believed him. She had never loved him more than now, when she knew the price she must pay for him. She closed her eyes for the moment to that terrible future, that certain future; and he was holding her in his arms, when without warning a heavy footstep began to ascend the stairs. They sprang apart.
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