but towards evening Yoletta came to take me to her mother. The summons
so terrified me that for some moments I sat trembling and unable to
articulate a word; for I could not but think that Chastel's end was
approaching. Yoletta, however, divining the cause of my agitation,
explained that her mother could not sleep for torturing pains in her
head, and wished me to place my hand on her forehead, to try whether
that would cause any relief. This seemed to me a not very promising
remedy; but she told me that on former occasions they had often
succeeded in procuring her ease by placing a hand on her forehead, and
that having failed now, Chastel had desired them to call me to her to
try my hand. I rose, and for the first time entered that sacred chamber,
where Chastel was lying on a low bed placed on a slightly raised
platform in the center of the floor. In the dim light her face looked
white as the pillow on which it rested, her forehead contracted with
sharp pain, while low moans came at short intervals from her twitching
lips; but her wide-open eyes were fixed on my face from the moment I
entered the room, and to me they seemed to express mental anguish rather
than physical suffering. At the head of the bed sat the father, holding
her hand in his; but when I entered he rose and made way for me,
retiring to the foot of the bed, where two of the women were seated. I
knelt beside the bed, and Yoletta raised and tenderly placed my right
hand on the mother's forehead, and, after whispering to me to let it
rest very gently there, she also withdrew a few paces.

Chastel did not speak, but for some minutes continued her low, piteous
moanings, only her eyes remained fixed on my face; and at last, becoming
uneasy at her scrutiny, I said in a whisper: "Dearest mother, do you
wish to say anything to me?"

"Yes, come nearer," she replied; and when I had bent my cheek close to