Mr. Girdlestone’s room was immediately above hers.  On the second day of her imprisonment she went up on to this landing, for, having nothing to read save the Bible, and no materials for writing, she had little to do but to wander over the old house, and through the grounds.  The door of Girdlestone’s room was ajar, and she could not help observing as she passed that the apartment was most elegantly and comfortably furnished.  So was the next room, the door of which was also open.  The solid furniture and rich carpet contrasted strangely with her own bare, whitewashed chamber.  All this pointed to the fact that her removal to the Priory had not been a sudden impulse on the part of the old merchant, but that he had planned and arranged every detail beforehand.  Her refusal of Ezra was only the excuse for setting the machinery in motion.  What was the object, then, and what was to be the end of this subtle scheming?  That was the question which occurred to her every hour of the day, and every hour the answer seemed more grim and menacing.

There was one link in the chain which was ever hidden from her.  It had never occurred to the girl that her fortune could be of moment to the firm.  She had been so accustomed to hear Ezra and his father talk glibly of millions, that she depreciated her own little capital and failed to realize how important it might be in a commercial crisis.  Indeed, the possibility of such a crisis never entered her head, for one of her earliest impressions was hearing her father talk of the great resources of the firm and of its stability.  That this firm was now in the direst straits, and that her money was absolutely essential to its existence, were things which never for one instant entered her thoughts.

Yet that necessity was becoming more pressing every day.  Ezra, in London, was doing all that indomitable energy and extraordinary business capacity could do to prolong the struggle.  As debts became due, he would still stave off each creditor with such skill and plausibility as allayed every suspicion.  Day by day, however, the work became more severe, and he felt that he was propping up an edifice which was so rotten that it must, sooner or later, come crumbling about his ears.  When he came down to the Priory upon the Saturday, the young man’s haggard and anxious face showed the severe ordeal which he had undergone.

Kate had already retired to her room when he arrived.  She heard the sound of the trap, however, and guessed who it was, even before his deep bass voice sounded in the room beneath.  Looking out of her window a little later she saw him walking to and fro in the moonlight, talking earnestly to his father.  It was a bitter night, and she wondered what they could have to talk about which might not be said beside the warm fire in the dining-room.  They flickered up and down among the shadows for more than an hour, and then the girl heard the door slam, and shortly afterwards the heavy tread of the two men passed her chamber, and ascended to the rooms above.