eculiar about this
which distressed me. I asked Mother Renouf to move her gently and bring
her face more toward me. The burning eyes opened widely as soon as she
felt the old woman's arm under her, and she looked up, with a flash of
intelligence, into my face. I stooped down to catch the whisper with
which her lips were moving.

"You told me not to stir," she murmured.

"Yes," I said; "but you are not to lie still till you are cramped and
stiff. Are you in much pain now?"

"He told me not to stir," muttered the parched lips again, "not to stir.
I must lie quite still, quite still, quite still!"

The feeble voice died away as she whispered the last words, but her lips
went on moving, as if she was repeating them to herself still. Certainly
there was mischief here. My last order, given just before her mind began
to wander, had taken possession of her brain, and retained authority
over her will. There was a pathetic obedience in her perfect immobility,
united with the shifting, restless glance of her eyes, and the ceaseless
ripple of movement about her mouth, which made me trebly anxious and
uneasy. A dominant idea had taken hold upon her which might prove
dangerous. I was glad when Mother Renouf had finished stewing her
decoction of poppy-heads, and brought the nauseous draught for the girl
to drink.

But whether the poppy-heads had lost their virtue, or our patient's
nervous condition had become too critical, too full of excitement and
disturbance, I cannot tell. It is certain that she was not sleeping in
ten minutes' or in an hour's time. Old Dame Tardif went off to her
bedroom, and Mother Renouf took her place by the girl's side. Tardif
could not be persuaded to leave the kitchen, though he appeared to be
falling asleep heavily, waking up at intervals, and starting with terror
at the least sound. For myself I scarcely slept at all, though I found
the fern bed a tolerably comfortable resting-place.

The gale that Tardif had foretold came with great violence about the
middle of the night. The wind howled up the long, narrow ravine like a
pack of wolves; mighty storms of hail and rain beat in torrents against
the windows, and the sea lifted up its voice with unmistakable energy.
Now and again a stronger gust than the others appeared to threaten to
carry off the thatched roof bodily, and leave us exposed to the tempest
with only the thick stone walls about us; and the latch of the outer
door rattled as if some one o