"Do you want anything more that I can
get you, Lady Speldhurst?" I asked, trying to feign a yawn of
sleepiness. The old dame's keen eyes were upon me. "I rather like
you, my dear," she said, "and I liked your mamma well enough before
she treated me so shamefully about the christening dinner. Now, I
know you are frightened and fearful, and if an owl should but flap
your window to-night, it might drive you into fits. There is a
nice little sofa-bed in this dressing closet--call your maid to
arrange it for you, and you can sleep there snugly, under the old
witch's protection, and then no goblin dare harm you, and nobody
will be a bit the wiser, or quiz you for being afraid." How little
I knew what hung in the balance of my refusal or acceptance of that
trivial proffer! Had the veil of the future been lifted for one
instant! but that veil is impenetrable to our gaze.
I left her door. As I crossed the landing a bright gleam came from
another room, whose door was left ajar; it (the light) fell like a
bar of golden sheen across my path. As I approached the door
opened and my sister Lucy, who had been watching for me, came out.
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