or some time; he turned to the bed where he
found a mattress and a blanket, but no sheets, and sat down on the edge
and waited. The governess was standing by the window looking out; her
back was turned to him. He heard an occasional deep sigh come from her,
but he was too busy now with his own sensations to trouble much about
her. Looking past her he saw the sea of green leaves dancing lazily in
the sunshine. Something seemed to beckon him from beyond the high wall,
and he longed to go out and play in the shade of the elms and hawthorns;
for the horror of the Empty House was closing in upon him steadily but
surely, and he longed for escape into a bright, unhaunted atmosphere,
more than anything else in the whole world.

His thoughts ran on and on in this vein, till presently he noticed that
the governess was moving about the room. She crossed over and tried
first one door and then the other; both were fastened. Next she lifted
the trap-door and peered down into the black hole below. That, too,
apparently was satisfactory. Then she came over to the bedside on
tiptoe.

"Jimbo, I've got something very important to ask you," she began.

"All right," he said, full of curiosity.

"You must answer me very exactly. Everything depends on it."

"I will."

She took another long look round the room, and then, in a still lower
whisper, bent over him, and asked:

"Have you any pain?"

"Where?" he asked, remembering to be exact.

"Anywhere."

He thought a moment.

"None, thank you."

"None at all--anywhere?" she insisted.

"None at all--anywhere," he said with decision.

She seemed disappointed.

"Never mind; it's a little soon yet, perhaps," she said. "We must have
patience. It will come in time."

"But I don't want any pain," he said, rather ruefully.

"You can't escape till it comes."

"I don't understand a bit what you mean." He began to feel alarmed at
the notion of escape and pain going together.

"You'll understand later, though," she said soothingly, "and it won't
hurt _very_ much. The sooner the pain comes, the sooner we can try to
escape. Nowhere can there be escape without it."

And with that she left him, disappearing without another word into the
hole below the trap, and leaving him, disconsolate yet excited, alone in
the room.

CHAPTER VIII

THE GALLERY OF ANCIENT MEMORIES

With every one, of course, the measurement of time depends largely upon
the state of the emotions, but in Jim