“Oh, is that you, Vic?” she exclaimed. “I’m so glad! Have you just come up? And did you meet Dave?”
“My dear child, you must be dreaming! Of course I didn’t meet Dave. It is the middle of the night.”
“But Dave just went through here,” said Sophy. “I heard a sound that woke me up, and when I opened my eyes there was Dave just going out the door. Didn’t you see him?”
“Dearest, I know you have been dreaming,” said Victoria, sitting down beside her little sister and taking her hand. “I tell you, it is after twelve o’clock, and Dave is probably sound asleep in his room at the barn. You know he is never upstairs here, and of course he wouldn’t be going through our room at any hour. You have such vivid dreams sometimes, Sophy. Don’t you remember the one about the pony that you thought was here in the room?”
Sophy laughed. “That was a funny one,” she said, “and the other about the animals that could talk, after Peter had been reading those stories to me. Well, perhaps you’re right, Vic, and this was a dream about Dave, but it was a very clear one, and I was frightened when I woke up and you weren’t here. Are you going to bed now?”
“Yes, very quickly, and you must try to go to sleep right away, it is so late.”
Sophy obediently lay down and was soon fast asleep again.
“Funny how the child dreams,” thought Victoria, “and it was funny, too, that I should have left the door open. Something must have blown down in the breeze and waked her up, and that was the noise she heard. Yes, here is a photograph on the floor, and this little book that was near the edge of my table. It must have been a pretty strong wind to blow that off, and yet it seems so warm now.”
And before long Victoria was herself asleep, having dismissed her cares and anxieties with the determination to think no more about them. If Honor was not troubled by them, why should she be?
It seemed to Victoria that she had been asleep but a few moments when she was awakened by a sharp and excited rapping upon her door. It must be morning, however, for instead of the moon which had lighted her room when she went to sleep, the sun was now shining in the heavens, already quite high and well advanced upon his day’s journey.