night?"

"Yes--very. How did you guess that? I have orange water or lemonade put
beside me every night, so that I may drink it if I wake up."

And then Evandale, who was watching her intently, saw that her face
changed as if an unpleasant thought had suddenly recurred to her.

"What is it, dear?"

"It was only a dream I have had several times--it troubles me whenever I
think of it; but I know that it is only a dream."

"Won't you tell me what it was? I should like to hear! Lay your head
back on my shoulder again and tell me about it."

Enid sighed again, but it was with bliss.

"Perhaps I shall not dream it if I tell it all to you," she murmured.
"It seems to me sometimes as if--in the middle of the night--I wake up
and see some one in the room--a white figure standing by my bed; and she
is always pouring something into my glass; or sometimes she offers it to
me and makes me drink; and she looks at me as if she hated me; and I--I
am afraid."

"But who is it, my darling?"

"I suppose it is nobody, because nobody else sees it but me. I made
Parker sleep with me two or three times; but she said that she saw
nothing, and that she was certain that nobody had come into the room. I
suppose it was a--a ghost!"

"Nonsense, dearest!"

"Then it was an optical illusion, and I am going out of my mind," said
Enid despairingly.

"Was the figure like that of anyone you know?"

"Yes--Flossy."

"Mrs. Vane? And you think that she does not like you?"

"I know that she hates me."

"My darling, it is simply a nightmare--nothing more." But he felt her
trembling in his arms.

"It is more than a nightmare, I am sure. You know that people used to
say that I might go out of my mind if those terrible seizures attacked
me? I have not had so many of them lately; but I feel weaker than ever I
did--I feel as if I were going to die. Perhaps it would be better if I
were to die, and then I should not be a trouble and a care to anybody.
And it would be better to die than to go mad, would it not?"

"Enid," said the Rector very gravely, "I believe that your malady is
entirely one of the nerves, and that it can be controlled. You must try
to believe, my darling, that you could conquer it if you tried. When you
feel the approach of one of these seizures, as you call them, resolve
that you will not give way. By a determined effort I think that it is
possible for you to ward them off. Will you try, for my sake?"

"I will try," said Enid