with Puffie, and go to sleep early, for long
watching spoils the complexion of young ladies. Begin to think
to-morrow of the dress which you will wear at that brilliant
ball--planned by our father to torment mamma--and you will have
success. Do not mind those mists, dreams, and other visions which
come and go. They are conditions of mind which are very much
subject to fancy, and other painted pots. This is all that I,
your great-grandfather, can tell you, or mention as advice. Look
at Ira and imitate her wisdom, which knows how to make sport of
the world around her. Good-night to you, little one!"

He pressed her hand in such a friendly manner that he hurt it,
and then went away, disappearing at the other end of the chamber.

Cara stood for a time with her eyes fixed on the floor, then she
raised her head and looked around at the void in which silence
had fixed itself. The globe-lamps burning, here and there, at the
walls, filled the drawing-room with a hazy, half-light, in which,
here and there, glittered golden reflections, and the features of
faces, and landscapes flimmered on pictures. Farther on, from the
shady corner of the other drawing-room, slender and swelling
vases appeared, partially; portions of white garlands on the
walls; the delicate dimness of dulled colors on Gobelin tapestry.
Farther still, in the small warm and bright drawing-room, lights
were burning in the candelabra, and a crown of glittering
crystals were hanging like icicles, or immense frozen tears.
Farthest off, in the dining-room, with its dark walls, gleamed a
great lamp, in its hanging bronze, like a point of light, above
the table. This point seemed very far from where Cara was
standing, and in all the space between her and it there was not a
voice, not a rustle, nothing living. Only once a waiter, dressed
in black, passed on tip-toe through the dining-room, emerged into
the full light of the lamp, and disappeared behind a door. After
that there was no voice, no step, no noise--nothing living. All
at once a clock began to strike nine. Its metallic sound inclined
to bass, and was heard clearly in the silence which had settled
in the vacant chambers. One, two, three--at the fourth stroke
another clock was heard in a distant study. Its sound was thinner
and more like singing--these two seemed to be a voice and its
echo; the sounds from these resembled a mysterious conversation
carried on by things that were inanimate.

Cara hurried then