still no answer.

'She is stone deaf,' I thought; and now I remembered having noticed,
as she brushed past me, a far-off gaze in her eyes, such as some
stone-deaf people show.

I re-entered the house. There she was, sitting immovably before the
fire, in the same reverie. I coughed and hemmed, softly at first,
then more loudly, finally with such vigour that I ran the risk of
damaging my throat, and still there was no movement of that head bent
over the fire and resting in the palms of the hands. At last I made a
step forward, then another, finally finding myself on the knitted
cloth hearthrug beside her. I now had the full view of her profile.
That she should be still unconscious of my presence was
unaccountable, for I stood at the end of the rug gazing at her. Again
I coughed and hemmed, but without producing the smallest effect. Then
I determined to address her; but I thought it would be safer to do so
as a stranger than to announce myself at once as Henry.

'I beg pardon,' I said, 'but is there any one at home?'

No answer.

'Is this the way to Capel Curig?

No answer.

'Will you give me shelter?' I said; and finally I gave a desperate
'halloo.'

My efforts had not produced the slightest effect. I was now in a
state of great agitation. That she was stone deaf seemed evident. But
was she not in some kind of fit, though without the contortions of
face Mivart had described to me--contortions which haunted me as much
as though I had seen them? I stooped down and gazed into her face.
There was now no terror there, nor even sorrow. I could see in her
eyes sparks of pleasure, as in the eyes of an infant when it seems to
see in the air pictures or colours to which our eyes are blind. Round
about her cheek and mouth a little dimple was playing, exactly like
the dimple that plays around the mouth of a pleased child. This
marvellous expression on her face recalled to me what Mivart had said
as to the form her dementia assumed between one paroxysm and another.

'Thank God,' thought I, 'she's not in a fit: she's only deaf.'

Driven to desperation, however, I seized her shoulder and shook it.
This aroused her. She started up with violence, at the same time
overturning the chair upon which she had been sitting. She stared at
me wildly. The danger of what I had done struck me now. A fortunate
inspiration caused me to say, 'Tywysog o'r Niwl.' Then there broke
over her face a sweet smile of childish pleasure. She made a gr