The fire dropped in the grate, the flames that had illumined her clasped hands and played fitfully on the moving body lost their power to leap, and the coals were grey, when a dog outside howled at the night. That sound of an inexpressible woe, challenging the peaceful hour of sleep, wrenched Janet from the dark place of her wandering. She started, crossed herself, and murmured words she did not understand. She stood up, shivering, and stretched out her hands. She passed them across her eyes. "God keep my soul from sin!" she said aloud. She went to the door, and let the frosty cold clean her of evil. "He mustn't get her that way," she muttered as she lit her candle. "I was lost--lost. God guard me!" And again, unknowingly, she made the sign on breast and brow, for this was what her ancestors had done. CHAPTER XXVIII For the first time since her school days Theresa had to stay in bed. "You need not think I'm overcome with grief," she said, when Grace peeped round the door. "And don't whisper, and don't be tenderly tactful. I'm in bed of an aching body, not a broken heart." "And a sharp tongue, I should think. Let me look at it. Oh, that's all right." "No, it isn't. I don't believe you know anything about it. It's that colour because I've been eating those pink lozenges that Uncle George keeps in his waistcoat pocket. There are knives sticking into me everywhere." Grace seated herself on the bed, and eyed her with the judicial air befitting one who is a mother. "You've taken cold," she said soothingly. "I have indeed. I'm surrounded by hot-water bottles, and I can't get warm. It seems to be a mistake to stand on the doorstep in one's nightgown." "What on earth did you do that for?" "I'm trying to find out. I don't know whether I was asleep or awake, but there I was. I must have been awake, for I can remember running down the stairs. I had to do it." With a little crease between her brows Grace said easily: "You must have been over-tired." "That's a comfortable solution. We'll leave it at that. Would you mind tucking the clothes into my back? No, don't touch my pillows. How nice you look! Like a pretty apple. Can you stay with me?" "No, dear; I'm going to a lesson. Would you like Baby?" "I don't think I feel equal to a baby. Come and see me on your way back. How's Phil?" Grace's cheeks could still flush at the sound of his name. "I think he is going to leave the theatre. He has so many pupils now, and it's torture to him to play the same trash night after night. We shall manage quite well, and he wants more time for composing." "Oh, poor me! I shall have to hear the writhings of his genius all of every night. Tell him to come and see me. That will keep him quiet for a little while. Will you pull down the blind, and tell Bessie I'm going to sleep? She comes in every five minutes with something on a plate, and it grows a little monotonous." "If you're not better to-night, I shall send for the doctor."