he glass, and my eyes were dark as bruises, the bones at
my throat standing out like wires. I heard Stephen''s voice, two floors below, and
when I was sure the drawing-room door was closed, I went down to Mother''s
room and found the chloral. I took twenty scruples of it—then, when I had sat,
waiting for the tug of it and feeling nothing, I took another ten.
Then I felt my blood begin to treacle and the flesh upon my face seem to
grow thick, and the pain behind my brow grew less, and I knew the medicine was
working. I put the chloral back inside the drawer, very neatly, just as Mother
would like. Then I went downstairs to stand beside her and smile at the guests.
She looked at me once when I appeared, to see that I was tidy; after that, she
didn''t look at me again. Helen, however, came to kiss me. ''You have been arguing,
I know,'' she whispered. I said, ''Oh Helen, how I wish Priscilla had not gone!''
Then I began to fear that she would smell the medicine on my mouth. I took a
glass of wine from Vigers'' tray, to take the scent away.
Vigers looked at me, as I did that, and said quietly, ''The pins of your hair,
miss, are working loose.'' She held her tray against her hip a moment, and put her
hand to my head—and it seemed the kindest gesture, suddenly, that anyone had
ever shown me, anyone at all.
Then Ellis struck the dinner-bell. Stephen took Mother, and Helen went with