He rose and extended his hand towards the bell-rope.

Madame glided round the table, extended her hand to arrest his.
'I will do everything, Monsieur Ruthyn--whatever you wish.' And with these words Madame de la Rougierre broke down altogether.

She sobbed, she wept, she gabbled piteously, all manner of incomprehensible roulades of lamentation and entreaty; coyly, penitently, in a most interesting agitation, she produced the very key from her breast, with a string tied to it.

My father was little moved by this piteous tempest.

He coolly took the key and tried it in the desk, which it locked and unlocked quite freely, though the wards were complicated.