ifer believed that he would! Barbara
clung to that as an anchor in this tempest of emotions. If he got
better he would open his eyes. If he opened his eyes it would be, for
a little while at least, with his inhibitions suspended. If his
inhibitions were suspended the thing he most wanted would be in his
first glance; and if his first glance fell on her....

Chapter XXVI

Waiting was becoming dreamlike. She didn't find it tedious, or
over-fraught with suspense. On the contrary, it was soothing. It was a
little trance-like, too, almost as if she had been enwrapped in Rash's
stillness.

It was so strange to see him still. It was so strange to be still
herself. Of her own being, as of his, she had hardly any concept apart
from the high winds of excitement. Calm like this was new to her, and
because new it was appeasing, wonderful. It was not unlike content,
only the content which comes in sleep, to be broken up by waking.
Somewhere in her nature she liked seeing him as he was, helpless,
inert, with no power of enraging her by being restive to her will. It
was, in its way, a repetition of what she had said that morning: "If
he wasn't here--or if he was dead!" Longing for peace, her stormy soul
seemed to know by instinct the price she would have to pay for it. For
peace to be possible Rash must pass out of her life, and the thought
of Rash passing out of her life was agony.

While Miss Gallifer was downstairs at lunch Barbara had the sweet,
unusual sense of having him all to herself. She had never so had him
in their hours together because the violence of their clashes had
prevented communion. Seated in this silence, in this quietude, she
felt him hers. There was no one to dispute her claim, no one whose
claim she had in any way to recognize as superior. Letty's claim she
had never recognized at all. It was accidental, spurious. Letty
herself didn't put it forth--and even she was gone. If Rash were to
open his eyes he would see no one but herself.

She was sorry when Miss Gallifer came back, though there was no help
for that; but Miss Gallifer was obtrusive only when she chatted or
moved about. For much of the time she pursued the secret of Violet
Pryde with such assiduity that the room became quiescent, and
communion with Rash could be re-established.

The awesome silence was disturbed only by the turning of Miss
Gallifer's pages. It might have been three o'clock. Once more Barbara
was lost in the unaccustome