A sheet of pale-green shadow that yet had form and substance filled the room. There was a rush of silent movement, as the Presences drew past her through the air,—and they were gone.
But, clearest of all, she saw the manner of their going; for she recognised in their tumult of escape by the window open at the top, the same wide 'looping circles'—spirals as it seemed—that she had seen upon the lawn those weeks ago when Sanderson had talked. The room once more was empty.
In the collapse that followed, she heard her husband's voice, as though coming from some great distance. Her own replies she heard as well. Both were so strange and unlike their normal speech, the very words unnatural.
'What is it, dear? Why do you wake me now?' And his voice whispered it with a sighing sound, like wind in pine boughs.
'A moment since something went past me through the air of the room. Back to the night outside it went.' Her voice, too, held the same note as of wind entangled among too many leaves.
'My dear, it was the wind.'
'But it called, David. It was calling you—by name!'
The air of the branches, dear, was what you heard. Now, sleep again, I beg you, sleep.
'It had a crowd of eyes all through and over it—before and behind——' Her voice grew louder. But his own in reply sank lower, far away, and oddly hushed.
'The moonlight, dear, upon the sea of twigs and boughs in the rain, was what you saw.'
'But it frightened me. I've lost my God—and you—I'm cold as death!'
