The door was closed, and Mrs. Tennison waited with me in silence. The
window of the room was open and through it came the sweet scent of the
roses and climbing jasmine, with the buzz of the summer insects and
the chatter of the birds, for the house was high up on that hill above
the great silk-weaving capital of the Rhône.
I rose and looked out upon the garden, so well ordered, for the
Professor was, it seemed, a lover of roses, the blossoms running riot
everywhere.
Suddenly, as we remained in silence, we heard Gabrielle's voice raised
until she shouted fierce defiant words in English:
"No!" she shrieked. "It was not that--not that! You try and fix upon
me a deed that I did not do! Why should you do this--why should you do
this!"
"Pardon, Mademoiselle," we heard the Professor say in a quiet, calm
tone. "Pardon. Please! I do not allege it. I have only asked a simple
question."
"Your question is insulting, doctor!" declared my beloved loudly. "Why
should you insinuate such a thing?"
"Mademoiselle, I insinuate nothing," replied the Professor. "I am
endeavouring to ascertain the exact state of your mental balance. Your
anger is, in itself, a most gratifying feature. A thousand pardons if
you feel that I have insulted you," he added with the extreme
politeness of his race.
Then, through the folding doors which divided the apartments, we heard
him say:
"Will you please give me both your hands, and look directly into my
eyes?"
There was a silence.
We could hear the Professor sigh, but he made no comment.
His examination occupied nearly an hour. He put to her many searching
questions in an endeavour to restore her memory as to what happened,
but without avail. Those questions seemed to perturb her, for of a
sudden she cried loudly, indeed she almost shrieked in terror:
"Ah! no! no! Save me!" she implored. "I--I can't stand it! I can't--I
really can't! See! Look! Look! There it is again--all red, green and
gold!--all red, green and gold!"
And we could hear her expressions of fear as she gazed upon some
imaginary object which held her terrified.
We heard the kindly old Professor putting many questions to her in an
endeavour to discover what gave rise to that nameless horror which she
so often experienced, but her replies were most vague. She seemed
unable to describe the chimera of her imagination. Yet it was only too
plain that on that fatal night she had seen something bearing those
colours which had so impressed itself upon her mind as distinctly
horrible that it constantly recurred to her.
Yet she was unable to describe it, owing to her mental aberration.
Time after time, she implored the Professor's protection from some
imaginary peril, and time after time, after she had begged him to
remain near her, she repeated those mysterious and meaningless words:
"Red, green and gold!--red, green and gold!"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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