and spiritual prostration which had been the result of a former
experience of a similar kind. Then, dressed as he was, he flung
himself on the bed and slept.




VIII.


When Dartmouth awoke the next day, the sun was streaming across the
bed and Jones's anxious face was bending over him.

"Oh, Mr. 'Arold," exclaimed Jones, "you've got it again."

Dartmouth laughed aloud. "One would think I had delirium tremens," he
said.

He put his hand over his eyes, and struggled with the desire to have
the room darkened. The melancholy had fastened itself upon him, and he
knew that for three or four days he was to be the victim of one of
his unhappiest moods. The laudanum had lulled his brain and prevented
violent reaction after its prolonged tension; but his spirits were at
zero, and his instinct was to shut out the light and succumb to his
enemy without resistance. If he had been anywhere but at Rhyd-Alwyn
he would not have thought twice about it; but if he shut himself up
in his room, not only would Weir be frightened and unhappy, but it
was probable that Sir Iltyd would question the desirability of a
son-in-law who was given to prolonged and uncontrollable attacks of
the blues. He dressed and went down-stairs, but Weir was nowhere to be