"It is difficult to give you an idea of how she has been behaving,
Fred, but here is an instance that may show how extraordinary her
conduct has been: Her room is next to mine, and since her return
from town she has shut herself up there quite early every evening.
I know she doesn't sleep much, for I hear her moving about all
night long. When I have gone to her door, however, and asked her
what was the matter, she has answered me quite curtly, and refused
to let me in. She has not been out of the house since she came
back, but, strangely enough, I have caught her again and again
peering through the blinds of those rooms that have a view of the
road, just as if she were watching for somebody. As soon as she
sees that she is observed, she frowns and moves away. Last night I
slept very heavily, being completely worn out by all this anxiety,
and was suddenly awakened by a piercing shriek. I rushed into
May's room and found her sitting up in bed talking volubly, while
about her all the lights were blazing. 'Take him away, take him
away!' she kept repeating, and then she wailed: 'Oh, he's dead,
he's dead!' I saw at once that she was asleep and tried to rouse
her, but it was some time before I succeeded in doing so. I told
her she had been dreaming, but she showed no curiosity as to what
she might have been saying, only evincing a strong desire to be
left alone. As I was leaving the room, I noticed that the key-hole
had been carefully stopped up. I suppose she did that so as to
prevent my knowing that she kept her lights burning all night. But
why make a secret of it? That is what I can't understand! She has
had a shock, and it has probably made her afraid of the dark, which
she has never been before, and perhaps she looks upon it as a
weakness to be ashamed of. Another unfortunate thing occurred this
morning. May has lately been breakfasting in bed, but, as ill-luck
would have it, to-day she got down-stairs before I did, and was
already looking over the newspaper when I came into the room.
Suddenly she started up, her eyes wild with terror, and then with a
low cry fell fainting to the floor.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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