If there was a possibility, however remote, that the Trust might
be hidden in any one of the locked repositories in the east wing, it was
a possibility to be put to the test. When? Her own experience answered
the question. At the time when no prying eyes were open, and no
accidents were to be feared--when the house was quiet--in the dead of
night.
She knew enough of her changed self to dread the enervating influence of
delay. She determined to run the risk headlong that night.
More blunders escaped her when dinner-time came; the admiral's
criticisms on her waiting at table were sharper than ever. His hardest
words inflicted no pain on her; she scarcely heard him--her mind was
dull to every sense but the sense of the coming trial. The evening which
had passed slowly to her on the night of her first experiment with
the keys passed quickly now. When bed-time came, bed-time took her by
surprise.
She waited longer on this occasion than she had waited before. The
admiral was at home; he might alter his mind and go downstairs again,
after he had gone up to his room; he might have forgotten something in
the library and might return to fetch it. Midnight struck from the clock
in the servants' hall before she ventured out of her room, with the keys
again in her pocket, with the candle again in her hand.
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