Could it have shut by itself afterwards?
She could scarcely believe it.

It was a heavy oaken door, that moved ponderously on its hinges; and the night was calm and breathless.

No current of air could have blown upon it.

Had some person from above come down and shut it after her?
and if so, who could that person be?
and had he suspected that she had slipped out into the night, and for what purpose?
With a wildly-beating heart and a frame that felt ready to sink into the ground with fear, Petronella tried the latch of the door, and found it yield to her hand.

She pressed it open and then stood suddenly still, a gasp of terror and dismay escaping her; for there, in the middle of the hall, the moonlight falling full upon his tall rugged figure, stood her father, waiting with folded arms for his truant daughter, a look upon his stern face that she shivered to behold.
"So, girl!" he exclaimed, making one stride forward and catching the frail wrist in a vice-like grasp which almost extorted a cry of pain--"so, my daughter, thou hast come in from this midnight tryst with thy lover! And what dost thou think is the reward a father bestows upon a daughter who leaves his house at this dead hour of the night to meet the man he has bidden her eschew for ever ?" Petronella's agitation was so great that she was well-nigh swooning.