CHAPTER XXIV--A STARTLING PROPOSITION


The more Mimi thought over the late events, the more puzzled she was.
What did it all mean--what could it mean, except that there was an error
of fact somewhere. Could it be possible that some of them--all of them
had been mistaken, that there had been no White Worm at all? On either
side of her was a belief impossible of reception. Not to believe in what
seemed apparent was to destroy the very foundations of belief . . . yet
in old days there had been monsters on the earth, and certainly some
people had believed in just such mysterious changes of identity. It was
all very strange. Just fancy how any stranger--say a doctor--would
regard her, if she were to tell him that she had been to a tea-party with
an antediluvian monster, and that they had been waited on by up-to-date
men-servants.

Adam had returned, exhilarated by his walk, and more settled in his mind
than he had been for some time. Like Mimi, he had gone through the phase
of doubt and inability to believe in the reality of things, though it had
not affected him to the same extent. The idea, however, that his wife
was suffering ill-effects from her terrible ordeal, braced him up. He
remained with her for a time, then he sought Sir Nathaniel in order to
talk over the matter with him. He knew that the calm common sense and
self-reliance of the old man, as well as his experience, would be helpful
to them all.

Sir Nathaniel had come to the conclusion that, for some reason which he
did not understand, Lady Arabella had changed her plans, and, for the
present at all events, was pacific. He was inclined to attribute her
changed demeanour to the fact that her influence over Edgar Caswall was