And through the chinks in the curtain the bright light shone.

Celia heard a loud rattle upon the table, and then fainter sounds of the same kind.

And as a kind of horrible accompaniment there ran the laboured breathing of the man, which broke now and then with a sobbing sound.

They were stripping Mme.
Dauvray of her pearl necklace, her bracelets, and her rings.

Celia had a sudden importunate vision of the old woman's fat, podgy hands loaded with brilliants.