“Were you not out of the room for a little while last night, Margaret?”
she said, rather suddenly.
“Yes, my lady. I told you I should have to go, perhaps.”
“I remember I thought you had gone, but I was not in the least afraid, and
that dreadful man never came near me. I do not know when you returned.
Perhaps I had fallen asleep; but when I thought about you next, there you
were by my bedside.”
“I shall not have to leave you to-night,” was all Margaret’s answer.
As for Hugh, when first he woke, the extraordinary experiences of the
previous night appeared to him to belong only to the night, and to have no
real relation to the daylight world. But a little reflection soon
convinced him of the contrary; and then he went through the duties of the
day like one who had nothing to do with them. The phantoms he had seen
even occupied some of the thinking space formerly appropriated by the
image of Euphra, though he knew to his concern that she was ill, and
confined to her room. He had heard the message sent to Mr. Arnold,
however, and so kept hoping for the dinner-hour.
With it came Euphra, very pale. Her eyes had an unsettled look, and there
were dark hollows under them. She would start and look sideways without
any visible cause; and was thus very different from her usual self—ordinarily
remarkable for self-possession, almost to coolness, of manner and speech.
Hugh saw it, and became both distressed and speculative in consequence. It
did not diminish his discomfort that, about the middle of dinner,
Funkelstein was announced. Was it, then, that Euphra had been tremulously
expectant of him?
“This is an unforeseen pleasure, Herr von Funkelstein,” said Mr. Arnold.
“It is very good of you to call it a pleasure, Mr. Arnold,” said he. “Miss
Cameron—but, good heavens! how ill you look!”
“Don’t be alarmed. I have only caught the plague.”
“Only?” was all Funkelstein said in reply; yet Hugh thought he had no
right to be so solicitous about Euphra’s health.
As the gentlemen sat at their wine, Mr. Arnold said:
“I am anxious to have one more trial of those strange things you have
brought to our knowledge. I have been thinking about them ever since.”
“Of course I am at your service, Mr. Arnold; but don’t you think, for the
ladies’ sakes, we have had enough of it?”
“You are very considerate, Herr von Funkelstein; but they need not be
present if they do not like it.”
“Very well, Mr. Arnold.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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