With
her little satin shoe she tapped the carpet, biting her under lip and
seeming to be listening. Nothing stirred. Not even an echo of busy
Bond Street penetrated to the place. Mrs. Irvin unfastened her cloak
and allowed it to fall back upon the settee. Her bare shoulders looked
waxen and unnatural in the weird light which shone down upon them. She
was breathing rapidly.
The minutes passed by in unbroken silence. So still was the room that
Mrs. Irvin could hear the faint crackling sound made by the burning
charcoal in the brass vessel near her. Wisps of blue-grey smoke arose
through the perforated lid and she began to watch them fascinatedly,
so lithe they seemed, like wraiths of serpents creeping up the green
draperies.
So she was seated, her foot still restlessly tapping, but her gaze
arrested by the hypnotic movements of the smoke, when at last a sound
from the outer world, penetrated to the room. A church clock struck
the hour of seven, its clangor intruding upon the silence only as a
muffled boom. Almost coincident with the last stroke came the sweeter
note of a silver gong from somewhere close at hand.
Mrs. Irvin started, and her eyes turned instantly in the direction of
the greenly draped wall before her.
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