Then something happened not at all romantic.

The flat began to leak.

In a very few moments it was necessary for Elaine to scramble to her feet, pick up her cloth of gold coverlet and pall of blackest samite and gaze blankly at a big crack in the bottom of her barge through which the water was literally pouring.

That sharp stake at the landing had torn off the strip of batting nailed on the flat.

Anne did not know this, but it did not take her long to realize that she was in a dangerous plight.