sh which showed off the
extraordinary elegance of her lithe form. The low lamp-light shone upon
her face and the coronet of gold set upon her dark hair. What a face it
was! Never in all his days had he seen its like for evil loveliness.
The great, languid, oblong eyes, the rich red lips bent like a bow, the
cruel smile of the mouth, the broad forehead on which the hair grew low,
the delicately arched eyebrows and the long curving lashes of the heavy
lids beneath them, the rounded cheeks, smooth as a ripe fruit, the firm,
shapely chin, the snake-like poise of the head, the long bending neck,
and the feline smile; all of these combined made such a dream-vision
as he had never seen before, and to tell the truth, notwithstanding
its beauty, for that could not be doubted, never wished to see again.
Somehow he felt that if Satan should happen to have a copper-coloured
wife, the exact picture of that lady had projected itself upon his
sleeping senses.

She seemed to study him very earnestly, with a kind of passionate
eagerness, indeed, moving a little now and again to let the light fall
upon some part that was in shadow. Once even she stretched out her
rounded arm and just lifted the edge of the blanket so as to expose his
hand, the left. As it chanced on the little finger of this hand Alan
wore a plain gold ring which Barbara had given him; once it had been her
grandfather's signet. This ring, which had a coat of arms cut upon its
bezel seemed to interest her very much as she examined it for a long
while. Then she drew off from her own finger another ring of gold
fashioned of two snakes curiously intertwined, and gently, so gently
that in his sleep he scarcely felt it, slipped it on to his finger above
Barbara's ring.

After this she seemed to vanish away, and Alan slept soundly until the
morning, when he awoke to find the light of the sun pouring into the
room through the high-set latticed window places.

CHAPTER XI

THE HALL OF THE DEAD

Alan rose and stretched himself, and hearing him, Jeekie, who had a
dog's faculty of instantly awaking from what seemed to be the deepest
sleep, sat up also.

"You rest well, Major? No dream, eh?" he asked curiously.

"Not very," answered Alan, "and I had a dream, of a woman who stood over
me and vanished away, as dreams do."

"Ah!" said Jeekie. "But where you find that new ring on finger, Major?"

Alan stared at his hand and started, for there set on it above that of
Barbar