ade it, and took it upstairs herself to Mrs. Macallan's room. Her
master, she said, opened the door when she knocked, and took the tea-cup
from her with his own hand. He opened the door widely enough for her to
see into the bedroom, and to notice that nobody was with Mrs. Macallan
but himself.

"After a little talk with the under-housemaid, I returned to the
bedroom. No one was there. Mrs. Macallan was lying perfectly quiet, with
her face turned away from me on the pillow. Approaching the bedside, I
kicked against something on the floor. It was a broken tea-cup. I said
to Mrs. Macallan, 'How comes the tea-cup to be broken, ma'am?' She
answered, without turning toward me, in an odd, muffled kind of voice,
'I dropped it.' 'Before you drank your tea, ma'am?' I asked. 'No,' she
said; 'in handing the cup back to Mr. Macallan, after I had done.' I had
put my question, wishing to know, in case she had spilled the tea when
she dropped the cup, whether it would be necessary to get her any more.
I am quite sure I remember correctly my question and her answer. I
inquired next if she had been long alone. She said, shortly, 'Yes; I
have been trying to sleep.' I said, 'Do you feel pretty comfortable?'
She answered, 'Yes,' again. All this time she still kept her face
sulkily turned from me toward the wall. Stooping over her to arrange the
bedclothes, I looked toward her table. The writing materials which were
always kept on it were disturbed, and there was wet ink on one of the
pens. I said, 'Surely you haven't been writing, ma'am?' 'Why not?'
she said; 'I couldn't sleep.' 'Another poem?' I asked. She laughed to
herself--a bitter, short laugh. 'Yes,' she said, 'another poem.' 'That's
good,' I said; 'it looks as if you were getting quite like yourself
again. We shan't want the doctor any more to-day.' She made no answer
to this, except an impatient sign with her hand. I didn't understand the
sign. Upon that she spoke again, and crossly enough, too--'I want to be
alone; leave me.'

"I had no choice but to do as I was told. To the best of my observation,
there was nothing the matter with her, and nothing for the nurse to
do. I put the bell-rope within reach of her hand, and I went downstairs
again.

"Half an hour more, as well as I can guess it, passed. I kept
within hearing of the bell; but it never rang. I was not quite at my
ease--without exactly knowing why. That odd, muffled voice in which she
had spoken to me hung on my mind, as