He shook her off, gently.
"Of course I'm going," he said. "We'll get it in time. Don't you worry.
You sit down here and rest, and when it's all straightened out I'll come
back. I suppose you can't go home, after this?"
"No," she said, dully.
He ran out, hatless, and a moment later she heard the car rush out into
the night.
Five minutes passed. Ten. Anna Klein stood, staring ahead of her. When
nothing happened she moved around and sat down in the chair. She was
frightfully tired. She leaned her head back and tried to think of
something to calm her shaking nerves,--that this was Graham's home, that
he sometimes sat in that very chair. But she found that Graham meant
nothing to her. Nothing mattered, except that her warning had been in
time.
So intent was she on the thing that she was listening for that smaller,
near-by sounds escaped her. So she did not hear a door open up-stairs
and the soft rustle of a woman's negligee as it swept from stair to
stair. But as the foot-steps outside the door she stood up quickly and
looked back over her shoulder.
Natalie stood framed in the doorway, staring at her.
"Well?" she said. And on receiving no answer from the frightened girl,
"What are you doing here?"
The ugly suspicion in her voice left Anna speechless for a moment.
"Don't move, please," said Natalie's cold voice. "Stay just where you
are." She reached behind the curtain at the doorway, and Anna heard the
far-away ringing of a bell, insistent and prolonged. The girl roused
herself with an effort.
"I came to see Mr. Spencer."
"That is a likely story! Who let you in?"
"Mr. Spencer."
"Mr. Spencer is not in."
"But he did. I'm telling you the truth. Indeed I am. I rang the bell,
and he came to the door. I had something to tell him."
"What could you possibly have to tell my husband at this hour."
But Anna Klein did not answer. From far away there came a dull report
followed almost immediately by a second one. The windows rattled, and
the house seemed to rock rather gently on its foundation. Then silence.
Anna Klein picked up her empty pocket-book from the table and looked at
it.
"I was too late," she said dully, and the next moment she was lying at
Natalie's feet.