urned on that visit to Cavendish Square! No--a hundred things
had happened, the absence of any one of which might have changed the
current of events, and left old Maisie to end her days undeceived; and
perhaps the whole tale of her lonely life and poverty to come to light
afterwards, and cast a gloom without a chance of solace over the last
hours of her surviving twin....

Was that the movement of a long-drawn breath, the precursor of an
unspoken farewell to the land of dreams? Scarcely! Nothing but a fancy,
this time, bred of watching too closely in the silence! Wait for the
clear signs of awakening, sure to come, in time!

It was so still, Gwen could hear the swift tick-tick-tick in the
watch-pocket at the bed's head; and, when she listened to it, her
consciousness that the big clock in the kitchen was at odds with the
hearth-cricket, rebuking his speed solemnly, grew less and less. For the
sound we look to hear comes out of the silence, when no other sound has
in it the force to speak on its own behalf. Two closed doors made the
kitchen-chorus dim. The new faggot had said its say, and given in to
mere red heat, with a stray flicker at the end. Drip and trickle were
without, and now and then a plash that said:--"Keep in doors, because of
me!" Gwen closed her eyes, as, since she was so wakeful, she could do so
with perfect safety; and listened to that industrious little watch.

It had become Dolly reciting the days of the week, before she knew her
vigilance was in danger. Gwen was certainly not asleep long, because
Dolly had only got to the second Tundy, when a scream awoke her, close
at hand to where Dolly was seated on General Rawnsley's knee. But it was
quick work, to think out where she was, and to throw her arms round the
frail, trembling form that was starting up from some terror of dreamland
unexplained, on the bed beside her.

"What is it, dear, what is it? Don't be frightened. See, I'm Gwen! I
brought you here, you know. There--there! Now it's all right." She spoke
as one speaks to a frightened child.

Old Maisie was trembling all over, and did not know where she was, at
first. "Don't let him come--don't let him come!" was what she kept
saying, over and over again. This passed off, and she knew Gwen, but was
far from clear about time and place. Questioned as to who it was that
was not to come, she had forgotten, but was aware she had been asleep
and dreaming. "Did I make a great noise and shout out?" said