The Third Window

believe that their troubles were not over. The very drawing-room, as they came back to it after di

herself an air of celebration and decision. It was for him, he felt, that her hair had been so clasped, and, as she knew he loved to see it, tossed back from her brow. For him, too, the dress as of a Charles the First lady, with falls of lace at elbow and the lace-edged cape

she herself was not without signs of the evening's magic. Her little pre-war dress, pathetic in its arrested fashion, its unused richness, became her. She, too, wore pearls, and she, too, oddly, with the straight line

ge?" Antonia went on. "Cicely

miling across at her from the sofa wh

and smoke, his hands clasped behind his head, and watch A

ways turns for her. Do you remember the fun we've had with it, Cicely? The night the Austins dined and it hopped

as very much displease

retended not to mind. Do you feel like trying it, Cicely? You

from the fire. She seemed to deliberate. When she looke

n it went so well, with you

ne he ha

ave power. Have yo

e." He felt, as he spoke, that he disliked it very much. So strongl

lieve you really are a little scared of it, like Mr. Foster, and th

, no

n it, then?-that

at this met hers with a sort of reminder, half gr

he knew that in her l

cely's subconscious trickery. Isn't it, Cicely? Are you tired? Will you t

u think a game will do us good

her eye. "Games are good for dreary people. We are all dreary, aren't we

her, feeling reluctance in her colourless replies. "A

id coldly: "No, I am not tired. Bri

le, if we like. It's in the corridor, isn't it? I'll ge

her appeal. But her pale little profile, fixed impassively on the fire, offered no hint of response. Much as she might dislike the game, she would never t

ch one looked down into the hall, and she had lifted a bow

him. He, also, laid his hands

e door was closed, but he spoke i

in a low voice; and she s

"It's not right. Not now. After

er. She had been an actress, dressed for a part, pretending gaiety and revival to inveigle him into

en?-That the spirits of t

s if beneath the actress's rouge. There wa

, that it's subconscious trickery. And it's not a time to

ry-that's what I believe too-why shoul

s all you believe? It's because you believe more, o

at rest? Don't be angry with me, Bevis. That frightens me more than anything-as you

mind so much? He did mind, horridly. But that

angry. I don't consent, though; I s

ifted the table and could only help Antonia carry

id Antonia. "And those three little

hen rose. "Isn't this table a little rickety?" she asked

Antonia. "It's quite solid. If yo

who wanted to," said Miss Latimer. "I have, I am sor

or me, I hope!" laughed

suspect themselves," said Mi

to humour me," said Antonia, still lau

the lamps?" ask

ng: "Oh, no; that's not at all necessary. We have never sat in

and they laid hands l

on talking,"

arative relief, to more familiar uses. He had not looked at either of his companions, but he now became aware of them, of their breathing and their heart-beats, with an intimacy which, he felt, turning his thoughts curiously, savoured of the unlawful. People were not meant to be aware of each other after such a fashion, with consciousness fallen far below the normal mental meeting-ground to the fundamental crucibles of the organism, where the physical machinery and the psychical personality became so mysteriously intermingled. There, in the first place-it pleased him to trace it out, and he was glad to keep his mind o

unrecognized reality; and so it was that Antonia's hands, as he looked at them, ceased to express her soft, sweet life, its delicacy, its mournfulness, its merriment, and, like the breathing and the heart-

and blood made his strength, and flesh and blood, dogged, confident, and blind, was a better barrier against fear than mere intelligence. There was more fear in him now than in Antonia, or he was more aware of what was to be feared-which came to the same thing. While she wandered sadly in dreams and abandoned herself to peril because she did not know where peril lay, he saw and felt reality,

, an impressionable, nervous ass; yet he saw them as doomed, unresisting creatures; and, while he still controlled himself to think, feeling himself infected with the vi

ty, "We're off!" Miss Latimer sat silent, her he

if it raps, will you say the alphabet for it, while I spell?" Antonia murmured. He r

toward Miss Latimer. Then, as suddenly as it had begun, it was still, and then he heard a soft yet sharp report, as if of a smal

em in the very wood under their hands. They did not come from Miss Latimer's toe-joints; nor from his or Tony's. Well, what of it? It was some oddity of magnetism, like the tipping, and, now that the experience was actually upon them, he felt, rather than any pa

voice, as of one long accustomed to these communions-"One for

rapped t

? Shall I begi

thre

evenly, to enumerate the letters. "A, B"-a rap fell neatly at the second sound. "B

Bevis'!-It's for you, B

said th

mer drowsily and, drowsily, she took up the alphabet. The tabl

ow odd," s

longer consciously sustained him. An insufferable languor, rather, fell upon him and fumes of sleep seemed to coil h

ted "the." Miss Latimer's drugged voice had taken u

whole alphabet for the finding of

ringly, upon Miss Latimer, whose head, drooping forward,

and it came from Antonia's face rathe

nia's shoulder to right himself. "Stop the damned thing!"

d into her lap. She sat

he looked at him. "Beside the fountain. Be

s now as if to hold h

dium-as you know. Her subconsciousness got at your

and I must see him. He has com

hers. Then, releasing her, "Very well," he said. "I'l

ore she drew back the curtain from the third window. The moon was high. The cedar was black against the b

ced his arm around her waist and a passionat

ing. Only the fountain was there, a thin spear of wavering light

ne, after the menace, as they had never been. He held her closely while they looked out, putting his ot

h yet. Her eyes were empty; but of him,

it mean?"

atimer. Had she just moved forward? Or for how long had she

ar; she saw it. Have you had enough of it,

t was not she. It came from something else." She was shuddering within his a

you and from me-and from her; all of us together. It

re, but so unsteadily that she had to pause and lay her hand on a chair as she went. At the table

Bevis. He wished that she were

ke this before.-Yes," she said, after a pause, "she is bre

ng after her, he caught her at the

he said, stopping sti

oment. "You mustn't be

d she continued to look at him with

ke my claim; in spite of wh

ead. "You don't understand," she said. "You cou

him. He went back round the screen. She had not stirred and, after looking at her for a moment, he leaned over her, as Antonia had done, and listened. She was breathing slowly and deeply, but now he felt s

course nothing. Only the fountain and the white fritillaries, strange, ghostly, pallid, and brooding. Well, they would get through