ved that I was in the hands of a good creature. I must have done
so, because I exhorted her to act in her official capacity. When she
said:--'Why ever now, when the sun's a-shining fit to brile the house
up!' I said to her--to remove ambiguity, you see--'Do be a good creature
and tell me, _is_ the room light or dark? She replied in a form of
affidavit:--'So help me, Mr. Torrens, if this was the last Bible word I
was to speak, this room is light, not dark, nor yet it won't be, not
till this blessed evening when there come candles or the lamp, as
preferred.' I had a sickening perplexity for a while whether I was sane
or mad, awake or dreaming, lying there with my heart adding to my
embarrassment needlessly by beating in a hurry. Then I remember how it
came to me all at once--the whole meaning of it. Till now, blind men had
been other people. Now I was to be one myself.... Say something!... I
don't like my own voice speaking alone.... there _is_ no one else in the
room, is there?"

"Not a soul. And nobody will come. The dowager-duchess is having tea in
her own room, and all the others will be late."

Something in this caused Mr. Torrens to say, with ridiculous
inconsecutiveness:--"Then you're not engaged to Lord Cumberworld?"

"I certainly am _not_ engaged to Lord Cumberworld," said Gwen with cold
emphasis. "Why did you think I was?"

"Mrs. Bailey."

"Mrs. Bailey! And why did you think I wasn't?"

"That requires thought. I don't quite see, now I come to think of it,
why a lady shouldn't be engaged to a party and speak about his grandma
as ..."

"As I spoke of his just now? Why not, indeed? She _is_ a
dowager-duchess."

"I admit it. But there are ways and ways of calling people
dowager-duchesses. It struck me that your way suggested that there was
something ridiculous about ... about _dowadging_."

"So there is--to me. I believe it arose from the newspaper saying, when
we had a ball in London for me to come out, that the Dowager Lady
Scamander had a magnificent diamond stomacher. Perhaps you don't happen
to know the shape of that good lady?... Never mind. Anyhow, I am _not_
engaged to this one's grandson; and she's safe in the west wing, where
the ghost never goes. We've got it all to ourselves. Go on!"

"My first idea was how to prevent Europe and Asia finding it out and
frightening my family, at least until my eyes had had time to turn
round. The next voice I heard was the doctor's, summoned, I suppose, by
Mr