reme end, towards the western bay, melted out into complete
darkness. This produced an effect of almost limitless length which
moved her to a childish, and at first pleasing, fancy of vague
danger--an effect heightened by the ranges of curious and costly
objects standing against, or decorating, the walls in a perspective of
deepening gloom. Turquoise-coloured, satin curtains, faded to intimate
accord with the silvered surface of the paneling, were drawn across the
wide windows. They reached to the lower edge of the stonework merely,
leaving blottings of impenetrable shadow below. While, as culmination
of interest, as living centre of this rich and varied setting, was the
figure of Richard Calmady--seen, as his custom was, only to the
waist--seated in a high-backed chair drawn close against an antique,
oak table, upon which a small _pietra dura_ cabinet shad been placed.
The doors of the cabinet stood open, displaying slender columns of
jasper and porphyry, and little drawers encrusted with raised work in
marbles and precious stones. The young man sat stiffly upright, as one
who listens, expectant. His expression was almost painfully serious. In
one hand he held a string of pearls, attached to which, and enclosed by
intersecting hoops of gold, was a crystal ball that shone with the mild
effulgence of a mimic moon. And the great room was so very quiet, that
Helen, in her pause upon the threshold, had remarked the sound of
raindrops tapping upon the many window-panes as with impatiently
nervous fingers.

And this bred in her a corresponding nervousness--sensation to her,
heretofore, almost unknown. The darkness yonder began to provoke a
disagreeable impression, queerly challenging both her eyesight and her
courage. Old convent teachings, regarding the Prince of Darkness and
his emissaries, returned upon her. What if diabolic shapes lurked
there, ready to become stealthily emergent? She had scoffed at such
archaic fancies in the convent, yet, in lonely hours, had suffered
panic fear of them, as will the hardiest sceptic. A certain little
scar, moreover, carefully hidden under the soft hair arranged low on
her right temple, smarted and pricked. In short, her habitual
self-confidence suffered partial eclipse. She was visited by the
disintegrating suspicion, for once, that the eternal laughter might,
possibly, be at her expense, rather than on her side.

But she conquered such suspicion as contemptible, and cast out the
pass