He finished his work in the torture-chamber, and went up to the common sitting-room, or drawing-room as it was called by courtesy, a little before midnight.
The servants had gone to bed, for there was no regular nightly watch in the apartment of the invalid.

Mrs.Halliday lay on a sofa in her husband's room, and Nancy Woolper slept in an adjoining apartment, always wakeful and ready if help of any kind should be wanted.
The house was very quiet just now.

Philip Sheldon walked up and down the room, thinking; and the creaking of his boots sounded unpleasantly loud to his ears.

He stopped before the fireplace, after having walked to and fro some time, and began to examine some letters that lay upon the mantelpiece.

They were addressed to Mr.Halliday, and had been forwarded from Yorkshire.