ot to
hypnotise herself, though she never thought of it by that name; and when
she had answered Guido's question, rightly or wrongly, she knew that it
must be right to break the old habit. But she did not know what she had
resolved to forego till the temptation came, that very night, after she
had shut the door, and when she was about to light the candles, by force
of habit. She checked herself. There was the high chair she loved to sit
in, with the candles behind her, waiting for her in the same place. If
she sat in it, the light would cast her shadow before her and the vision
would presently rise in it.

She had taken the lid off the little Wedgwood match box and the candles
were before her. It seemed as if some physical power were going to force
her to strike the wax match in spite of herself. If she did, five
minutes would not pass before she should see the marble court of the
Vestals' house, and then the rest--the kiss, and then the rest. She
stiffened her arm, as if to resist the force that tried to move it
against her will, and she held her breath and then breathed hard again.
She felt her throat growing slowly dry and the blood rising with a
strange pressure to the back of her head. If she let her hand move to
take the match, she was lost. As the temptation increased she tried to
say a prayer.

Then, she did not know how, it grew less, as if a sort of crisis were
past, and she drew a long breath of relief as her arm relaxed, and she
replaced the lid on the box. She turned from the table and took the big
chair away from its usual place. It was a heavy thing for a woman to
carry, but she did not notice the weight till she had set it against the
wall at the further end of the room.

She slept little that night, but she slept naturally, and when she awoke
there was no sound of the door being softly closed. But she missed
something, and felt a dull, inexplicable want all the next day.

A habit is not broken by a single interruption. It is hard for a man
whose nerves are accustomed to a stimulant or a narcotic to go without
it for one day, but that is as nothing compared with giving it up
altogether. Specialists can decide whether there is any resemblance
between the condition of a person under the influence of morphia or
alcohol, and the state of a person hypnotised, whether by himself or by
another, when that state is regularly accompanied by the illusion of
some strong and agreeable emotion. Probably all means