By this time, however, she had lowered the upper sashes of the windows
about a foot, and the fresh air of morning was pouring in, curling the
paper on the centre table and dispersing the noisome fragrance of the
flowers, in which I detected the morbid supremacy of the tuberose and
jasmine.

"I want to see the streets, the people," I said, approaching one of the
windows; "this artistic light is not at all the thing I need. I have no
picture to paint, not even my own face;" and, finding her unmoved, I
undertook to do the requisite work myself.

The sashes were shut away below by inside shutters, which resisted all
my efforts to stir them. After a moment's inspection, I perceived that
they were secured by iron screws of great strength and size; not, in
short, meant to be moved or opened at all. Again I essayed to shake them
convulsively one after the other--as you may sometimes see a tiger, made
desperate by confinement, grapple with the inexorable bars of his cage,
though certain of failure and defeat.

Overpowered by a sudden dismay that took entire possession of me, I sank
into one of the deep _fauteuils_ that extended its arms very opportunely
to receive me, and sat mutely for a moment, while anguish unutterable,
and conjecture too wild to be hazarded in speech, were surging through
my brain.

"I am too weak, I suppose, to open these shutters," I said at last,
feebly. "Be good enough to do it for me, Mrs. Clayton, or cause it to be
done immediately."

Was it not strange that up to this very moment no suspicion had clouded
my horizon since I woke in that sumptuous room?

"I cannot transcend my orders by doing any thing of the kind," she said
quietly, yet resolutely, as she pursued her avocation, that of dusting
with a bunch of colored plumes the delicate ornaments of the _etagere_
carefully one by one.

"Your authority! Who has dared to delegate to you what has no existence
as far as I am concerned?" I asked indignantly. "I will go instantly."

"You cannot leave this chamber until you receive outside permission,"
she interrupted, firmly planting herself at once between me and the door
through which I had seen her enter. "You must not think to pass through
my chamber, Miss Miriam. It is locked without, and there is no other
outlet."

"Woman!" I said, grasping her feebly yet fiercely, by the arm. "Look at
me! Raise those feline eyes to mine, if you dare, and answer me
truthfully: What means this mockery! Why