When the rector beheld her descend in that bewitching _negligee_,—her hair unconfined, and floating at will—her small, round, polished ankles glancing between the white drapery and the little slippers,—and the child, with merely a thick shawl thrown about it, in her arms,—and when he observed the bath in that chamber which she entered, he immediately comprehended her intention.
Without a moment's hesitation he stole softly from the recess where he had concealed himself, and approached the door of the bath-room.
His greedy eyes were applied to the key-hole; and his licentious glance plunged into the depths of that sacred privacy.
The unsuspecting Ellen was warbling cheerfully to her child.
She dipped her hand into the water, which Marian had prepared for her, and found the degree of heat agreeable to her wishes.
Then she placed the towels near the fire to warm.
Reginald watched her proceedings with the most ardent curiosity: the very luxury of the unhallowed enjoyment which he experienced caused an oppression at his chest; his heart beat quickly; his brain seemed to throb with violence.
The fires of gross sensuality raged madly in his breast.
With her charming white hand she put back her hair from her forehead.
Then, as she still retained the child on her left arm, with her right hand she loosened the strings which closed her dressing-gown round the neck and the band which confined it at the waist.
While thus occupied, she was partly turned towards the door; and all the treasures of her bosom were revealed to the ardent gaze of the rector.
His desires were now inflamed to that pitch when they almost become ungovernable. He felt that could he possess that charming creature, he would care not for the result—even though he forced her to compliance with his wishes, and murder and suicide followed,—the murder of her, and the suicide of himself!
He was about to grasp the handle of the door, when he remembered that he had heard the key turn in the lock immediately after she had entered the room.
And now the drapery had fallen from her shoulders, and the whole of her voluptuous form, naked to the waist, was exposed to his view.
He could have broken down the door, had he not feared to alarm the other inmates of the house.