Being sad one night,I lay close to the open skylight and listened.
The vision she related told what this miserable room might be if it had comforts in it.She seemed to see it as she talked,and she grew cheered and warmed as she spoke.Then she came to this fancy;
and the next day,the Sahib being ill and wretched,I told him of the thing to amuse him.It seemed then but a dream,but it pleased the Sahib.To hear of the child's doings gave him entertainment.
He became interested in her and asked questions.At last he began to please himself with the thought of making her visions real things."
"You think that it can be done while she sleeps?Suppose she awakened,"
suggested the secretary;and it was evident that whatsoever the plan referred to was,it had caught and pleased his fancy as well as the Sahib Carrisford's.
"I can move as if my feet were of velvet,"Ram Dass replied;
"and children sleep soundly--even the unhappy ones.I could have entered this room in the night many times,and without causing her to turn upon her pillow.If the other bearer passes to me the things through the window,I can do all and she will not stir.
When she awakens she will think a magician has been here."
He smiled as if his heart warmed under his white robe,and the secretary smiled back at him.
"It will be like a story from the Arabian Nights,"he said.
"Only an Oriental could have planned it.It does not belong to London fogs."
They did not remain very long,to the great relief of Melchisedec,who,as he probably did not comprehend their conversation,felt their movements and whispers ominous.The young secretary seemed interested in everything.He wrote down things about the floor,the fireplace,the broken footstool,the old table,the walls--which last he touched with his hand again and again,seeming much pleased when he found that a number of old nails had been driven in various places.