defence against force. Just as she was about to lie down another thought struck her—'I shall presently be in the dark, and as I am sure I shall not sleep, that will add greatly to my terrors.' It was but a few inches of rushlight the old woman had given her, and that was fast burning down to the socket. So she drew back the bolt again and opened the door, resolved to go down and beg for more light, from those whom she still heard talking below. As she had taken off her shoes preparatory to stretching herself on the bed, her step was noiseless, and seemed to cause no interruption in the conversation between mother and son; and she was just placing her foot on the first stair, when the words Monsieur Rodolphe again caught her ear, but this time it was in the voice of her son.
"'Encore Monsieur Rodolphe,' thought she —'then this is not Monsieur Rodolphe, or there are two,'-and she crept down a few stairs more, as softly as she could.
"'I admit I can't comprehend it,' she heard the old woman say; 'the thing's incomprehensible, but I'm not the less convinced that my apprehensions are well founded. He falls upon us here as if he came down the chimney; nobody knows how or why, with a
