Her maid had over-acted her instructions, and had not only turned the lights low, but had turned them out entirely.
There was no need of artificial light, however; for the windows were open and the room was flooded with the brilliant moonshine of these northern latitudes.
Salome did not know or care how the room was lighted. She sat there thrilled with awe of what she had just experienced.
Had she really seen the marquis?—or his spirit? Or had she been the victim of an optical illusion?
If she had seen the marquis, what could have brought him secretly into the house and up into the hall of the bed-rooms, at that hour of the night? And why did he not answer her, when she called him?
It surely could not have been the marquis whom she saw! He never would have crept into the house and up to their private-rooms, at that hour of the night, or fled from her, when she called him?
What was it then that she had seen in the likeness of her lover?
Was it the disembodied spirit of Arondelle? Could the spirit of a living man appear in one place, while the body of the man was present in another? She had heard and read of such wonders, yet she could not accept them as facts.
No, this was no spirit.
What then? Had she been the subject of an optical illusion? She had heard of those wonders also!