Listening, eyes searching the dusk, he heard somewhere the rustle of a curtain blowing at an open window; and, stepping softly to his dining-room door, he turned the knob cautiously and peered in.
No window seemed to be open there; the place was dark, the furniture still in its linen coverings.
As he moved silently to the butler's pantry, where through loosely closed blinds the sunshine glimmered, making an amber-tinted mystery of the silence, it seemed for a moment to him as though he could still hear somewhere the stir of the curtain; and he turned and retraced his steps through the library.
In the twilight of the place, half revealed as he passed, he began now to catch glimpses of a state of things that puzzled him.
Coming presently to his dressing room, he opened the door, and, sure enough, there was a window open, and beside it a curtain fluttered gayly. But what completely monopolized his attention was a number of fashionable trunks--wardrobe trunks, steamer trunks, hat trunks, shoe trunks--some open, and the expensive-looking contents partly visible; some closed and covered. And on every piece of this undoubtedly feminine luggage were the letters D.T. or S.T.
And on top of the largest trunk sat a live cat.
The cat was pure white and plumy, and Persian. Out of its wonderful sky-blue eyes it looked serenely at Edgerton; and the young man gazed back, astonished. Then, suddenly, he caught a glimpse of the bedroom beyond, and froze to a statue.
The object that appeared to petrify him lay flung across his bed--a trailing garment of cobweb lace touched here and there with rose-tinted ribbons.
For a moment he stared at it hypnotized; then his eyes shifted wildly to his dresser, which seemed to be covered with somebody else's toilet silver and crystal, and--_what_ was that row of cunning little commercial curls!--that chair heaped with fluffy stuffs, lacy, intimate things, faintly fragrant!
[Illustration: "A dainty, unreal shape, exquisite as a tinted phantom stealing through a fairy tale of Old Japan."]
With a violent shiver he turned his startled eyes toward the parted tapestry gently stirring in the unfelt summer wind.
From where he stood he could see into the great studio beyond. A small, flowered silk slipper lay near the threshold, high of heel, impertinent, fascinating; beyond, on the corner of a table stood a bowl full of peonies, ivory, pink, and salmon-tinted; and their perfume filled the place.