pretence at eating was abandoned. I felt as though bound by a spell, while the corners of the room were blotted out by creeping darkness.
Then slowly the door opened, and the figure of a woman entered the dusky room—a shadow among shadows, it moved toward the table. She drew a chair up to the table, and sat down between the husband and wife—a dim figure in the gray light.
Mr. Grantham, his eyes fixed on his plate, lost in abstraction, did not look up. Mrs. Grantham, still turned toward the door, did not change her attitude, or her fixed stare. The newcomer might have been invisible for any notice she received from the strange couple. I wondered that neither of them made any attempt to introduce me to the woman, but suddenly Mrs. Grantham turned to me with a shudder.
“I am ill, Miss Ellis,’ she said. “Will you help me to my room?”
The spell was broken. I sprang up, conscious of a damp chill in the atmosphere.
Mrs, Grantham leaned on me heavily as we left the room. There was something unnatural, trancelike in the immobility of the two who remained, who sat like statues while I supported the fainting woman as we left the room,
In the hall she collapsed as Martha came running from the rear of the house. Together we got her to her room, administered restoratives, and put her to bed.
I left Martha sitting beside her, and went downstairs determined to rouse Mr. Grantham and acquaint him with the fact that his wife’s illness was serious. I meant to find out if he was wholly callous or if his apparent indifference had its root in some other cause.
Twilight had passed now, and the hall was quite dark. The dining room was a cavern of gloom into which light from the big west window cast a dim reflection.
I could see the two figures sitting motionless at the table. A long, white arm encircled Mr. Grantham’s neck and—he looked very much worried.
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I could see two
figures sitting
motionless at
the table
I could hardly interrupt so intimate a tete-a-tete, but I purposely made some noise as I passed the dining room into the next room, which proved to be the library. I found and turned the light switch, revealing a long, comfortably furnished room, plentifully supplied with books and magazines—a room inspiring ease and repose.
Facing me was a large, flat-topped desk on which was a
