Page:Blue Magic.djvu/149

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A VOICE IN THE DARKNESS

Mrs. Norvell and Cynthia should go to bed, or at least to rest, and flung himself down on a couch in the corner. Siddereticus refused to move, saying that he would not risk withdrawing his arm from under the pillow, for fear of waking Fen. So he remained through the hours, sometimes changing the position of his shoulders and legs, but keeping his right arm motionless.

He fell at times into a sort of numb sleep, and would wake dizzily with a horrible fear that he had moved. He never knew until very long afterward whether or not he had dreamed it, but he was almost certain that once in the night Cynthia had come and bent over Fen with an expression of infinite tenderness, and then, turning toward himself, had touched his hair very lightly.

Siddereticus had lost all sensation in his arm, and felt that he could not bear to

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