The chance which the
cabinet in the library had offered in her favor was the first chance and
the last.
She went back to her room, seeing nothing but her own gliding shadow,
hearing nothing but her own stealthy footfall in the midnight stillness
of the house. After mechanically putting the keys away in their former
hiding-place, she looked toward her bed, and turned away from it,
shuddering. The warning remembrance of what she had suffered that
morning in the garden was vividly present to her mind. "Another chance
tried," she thought to herself, "and another chance lost! I shall break
down again if I think of it; and I shall think of it if I lie awake in
the dark." She had brought a work-box with her to St. Crux, as one
of the many little things which in her character of a servant it was
desirable to possess; and she now opened the box and applied herself
resolutely to work. Her want of dexterity with her needle assisted the
object she had in view; it obliged her to pay the closest attention to
her employment; it forced her thoughts away from the two subjects of all
others which she now dreaded most--herself and the future.
The next day, as he had arranged, the admiral returned.
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