otracting the enjoyment of a dish of milk.
Even her triumph was measured and decorous; the faculty of exultation
had been chilled by disuse. She presently continued. "Late one night I
was sitting by the marquis in his room, the great red room in the west
tower. He had been complaining a little, and I gave him a spoonful
of the doctor's dose. My lady had been there in the early part of the
evening; she sat far more than an hour by his bed. Then she went away
and left me alone. After midnight she came back, and her eldest son was
with her. They went to the bed and looked at the marquis, and my lady
took hold of his hand. Then she turned to me and said he was not so
well; I remember how the marquis, without saying anything, lay staring
at her. I can see his white face, at this moment, in the great black
square between the bed-curtains. I said I didn't think he was very bad;
and she told me to go to bed--she would sit a while with him. When the
marquis saw me going he gave a sort of groan, and called out to me not
to leave him; but Mr. Urbain opened the door for me and pointed the
way out. The present marquis--perhaps you have noticed, sir--has a very
proud way of giving orders, and I was there to take orders. I went to
my room, but I wasn't easy; I couldn't tell you why. I didn't undress;
I sat there waiting and listening. For what, would you have said, sir? I
couldn't have told you; for surely a poor gentleman might be comfortable
with his wife and his son. It was as if I expected to hear the marquis
moaning after me again. I listened, but I heard nothing. It was a very
still night; I never knew a night so still. At last the very stillness
itself seemed to frighten me, and I came out of my room and went very
softly down-stairs. In the anteroom, outside of the marquis's chamber,
I found Mr. Urbain walking up and down. He asked me what I wanted, and
I said I came back to relieve my lady. He said HE would relieve my lady,
and ordered me back to bed; but as I stood there, unwilling to turn
away, the door of the room opened and my lady came out. I noticed she
was very pale; she was very strange. She looked a moment at the count
and at me, and then she held out her arms to the count. He went to her,
and she fell upon him and hid her face. I went quickly past her into the
room and to the marquis's bed. He was lying there, very white, with his
eyes shut, like a corpse. I took hold of his hand and spoke to him,
and he felt to me lik