Rooms were now empty and silent,
which the day before had been filled with animated groups, and had
echoed with merry laughter. In one apartment, the fittings for the
series of "Tableaux" which had been proposed, remained half completed:
the dresses that were to have been worn, lay scattered on the floor; the
carpenter who had come to proceed with his work, gathered up his tools
in ominous silence, and departed as quickly as he could. Here lay books
still open at the last page read; there was an album, with the drawing
of the day before unfinished, and the color-box unclosed by its side. On
the deserted billiard-table, the positions of the "cues" and balls
showed traces of an interrupted game. Flowers were scattered on the
rustic tables in the garden, half made into nosegays, and beginning to
wither already. The very dogs wandered in a moody, unsettled way about
the house, missing the friendly hands that had fondled and fed them for
so many days past, and whining impatiently in the deserted
drawing-rooms. The social desolation of the scene was miserably complete
in all its aspects.

Immediately after the departure of his guests, Mr. Langley had a long
interview with his wife. He repeated to her the conversation which had
taken place between Mr. Streatfield and himself, and received from her
in return such an account of the conduct of his daughter, under the
trial that had befallen her, as filled him with equal astonishment and
admiration. It was a new revelation to him of the character of his own
child.

"As soon as the violent symptoms had subsided," said Mrs. Langley, in
answer to her husband's first inquiries, "as soon as the hysterical fit
was subdued, Jane seemed suddenly to assume a new character, to become
another person. She begged that the Doctor might be released from his
attendance, and that she might be left alone with me and with her sister
Clara. When every one else had quitted the room, she continued to sit in
the easy-chair where we had at first placed her, covering her face with
her hands. She entreated us not to speak to her for a short time, and,
except that she shuddered occasionally, sat quite still and silent. When
she at last looked up, we were shocked to see the deadly paleness of her
face, and the strange alteration that had come over her expression; but
she spoke to us so coherently, so solemnly even, that we were amazed; we
knew not what to think or what to do; it hardly seemed to be _our_ Ja