up! He stared about in his fright for a place of concealment, then darted noiselessly into the nearest dark bedroom. He could see her plainly as she came slowly up the stair and stopped for several moments in the hall, hesitating and looking back as though something which she had not understood but only had felt vaguely was troubling her. She was the woman whose picture he had seen in the newspaper office. His father's wife?
She was a slender woman. Her hair was almost black, with lights of brown in it, and looped itself prettily about her ears and temples; her eyes were deep dark blue, and kind and pleasant; her nose and chin were finely formed and full of character; her mouth was sweet and tender. Her look was girlish, but her face showed more understanding and sympathy than mere girls have.
That indeterminate, disturbing emotion which he had felt in looking at her picture he felt still more plainly now. She made him, in some not understandable way, seem small and lonely; she stirred in him something like a physical want,
