CHAPTER X


_Love and Power_.

When the morning came, I began to doubt whether my wakefulness had not
been part of my dream, and I had not dreamed the whole of my supposed
adventures. There was no sign of a lady's presence left in the
room.--How could there have been?--But throwing the plaid which covered
me aside, my hand was caught by a single thread of something so fine
that I could not see it till the light grew strong. I wound it round and
round my finger, and doubted no longer.

At breakfast there was no Lady Alice--nor at dinner. I grew uneasy, but
what could I do? I soon learned that she was ill; and a weary fortnight
passed before I saw her again. Mrs. Wilson told me that she had caught
cold, and was confined to her room. So I was ill at ease, not from love
alone, but from anxiety as well. Every night I crept up through the
deserted house to the stair where she had vanished, and there sat in the
darkness or groped and peered about for some sign. But I saw no light
even, and did not know where her room was. It might be far beyond this
extremity of my knowledge; for I discovered no indication of the
proximity of the inhabited portion of the house. Mrs. Wilson said there
was nothing serious the matter; but this did not satisfy me, for I
imagined something mysterious in the way in which she spoke.

As the days went on, and she did not appear, my soul began to droop