onger felt in her
this tranquillity and serenity, he was no longer calm; she was weak and
uneasy, and she communicated her fever to him, not her sleep.

"You do not sleep. Why do you not sleep?"

"And you?"

He must know.

He persisted in his questions, but she was always on her guard, so that
he was unable to draw anything from her, checked as he was by the fear
of betraying himself, which seemed easy at the point he believed she
had reached. An awkward word, too much persistence, would let a flood of
light into her mind.

He also affected to speak as a physician when questioning her, and to
look for medical explanations of her condition.

"If you do not sleep it is because you suffer. What is this suffering?
From what does it proceed?"

Having no reasons to give to justify it, since she did not even dare to
speak of her brother, she denied it obstinately.

"But nothing is the matter with me, I assure you," she repeated. "What
do you think is the matter?"

"That is what I ask you."

"Then I ask you: What do you think I conceal from you?"

He could not say that he suspected her of concealing anything from him.

"You do not watch yourself properly."

"I can do nothing."

"I will force you to watch yourself and to speak."

"How?"

"By putting you to sleep."

The threat was so terrible that she was beside herself.

"Do not do that!" she cried.

They looked at each other for a few moments in silence, both equally
frightened, she at the threat, he at what he would learn from her. But
to show this fright was on his side to let loose another proof even more
grave.

"Why should I not seek to discover in every way the cause of this
uneasiness which escapes my examination as well as yours? For that
somnambulism offers us an excellent way."

"But since I am not ill, what more could I tell you when I am asleep
than when I am awake?"

"We shall see."

"It is an experiment that I ask you not to attempt. Would you try a
poison on me?"

"Somnambulism is not a poison."

"Who knows?"

"Those who have made use of it."

"But you have not."

"Still I know enough to know that you will run no danger in my hands."

She believed that he opened a door of escape to her.

"Never mind, I am too much afraid. If you ever want to make me talk in
a state of forced somnambulism, ask one of your 'confreres' in whom you
have confidence to put me to sleep."

Before a 'confrere' she was certain he would not ask he