THE LAND OF PROMISE




CHAPTER I


Nora opened her eyes to an unaccustomed consciousness of well-being. She
was dimly aware that it had its origin in something deeper than mere
physical comfort; but for the moment, in that state between sleeping and
wakening, which still held her, it was enough to find that body and mind
seemed rested.

Youth was reasserting itself. And it was only a short time ago that she
had felt that never, never, could she by any possible chance feel young
again. When one is young, one resents the reaction after any strain not
purely physical as if it were a premature symptom of old age.

A ray of brilliant sunshine, which found its way through a gap in the
drawn curtains, showed that it was long past the usual hour for rising.
She smiled whimsically and closed her eyes once more. She remembered now
that she was not in her own little room in the other wing of the house.
The curtains proved that. How often in the ten years she had been with
Miss Wickham had she begged that the staring white window blind, which