more to make me doubt if even _I_ were in life. I can't
express what followed it save by saying that the silence itself--
which was indeed in a manner an attestation of my strength--
became the element into which I saw the figure disappear;
in which I definitely saw it turn as I might have seen the low
wretch to which it had once belonged turn on receipt of an order,
and pass, with my eyes on the villainous back that no hunch
could have more disfigured, straight down the staircase
and into the darkness in which the next bend was lost.



X


I remained awhile at the top of the stair, but with the effect
presently of understanding that when my visitor had gone, he had gone:
then I returned to my room. The foremost thing I saw there
by the light of the candle I had left burning was that Flora's
little bed was empty; and on this I caught my breath with all
the terror that, five minutes before, I had been able to resist.
I dashed at the place in which I had left her lying and over which
(for the small silk counterpane and the sheets were disarranged)
the white curtains had been deceivingly pulled forward;
then my step, to my unutterable relief, produced an answering sound:
I perceived an agitation of the window blind, and the child,
ducking down, emerged rosily from the other side of it.
She stood there in so much of her candor and so little of her nightgown,
with her pink bare feet and the golden glow of her curls.
She looked intensely grave, and I had never had such a sense of losing