She went up into the shadows and I followed. A flight of stairs, a long creaking landing. Another flight of stairs. Stumbles. Another landing. A stale aroma of cat. And a general sense that, although the staircase was well made and the landings wide, there was not one stick of furniture in the house.
As we approached the top floor we met fresher air and the pallid emanation of a night-light. A figure stood waiting at the head of the stairs.
This was a stout little nun, her face framed in creaking linen, and a great rustle of robes and rosary beads whenever she moved. She began a sharp whisper the minute we climbed to the landing.
“He’s awake. He’s out of his head. I’m glad you’ve come. Now, child, be off to bed with you, like a good girl. This way, if you please.”
The child’s vast eyes accepted me. “I’ll go to Mother,” she said, and she receded downstairs. The nun entered an open door to the right, and again I meekly followed.
It was a room out of the fables. There was a tall fireplace facing the door, with a slat of packing-case burning in it as well as the wind would permit, and a solitary candle glimmering in a bottle, set on the table at the head of the bed. Its uncertain light fell on the tousled hair of a once kempt human being, now evidently a semi-maniac staring at presences in the room. Down the chimney the wind came bluffing at intervals, and the one high window querulously rattled. The center of the room was the sick man’s burning eyes.
I walked through his view and he did not see me. The nun and myself stood watching him from the head of the bed.
“Oh, he’s awful bad, you have no idea how bad he is; I’m afraid for him; I am indeed. What am I to call you, Mister? Here, take this chair.”
Before I answered her she continued, in a whisper that slid along from one s to the next. “They said the doctor would be here at seven and it’s nearly twelve as it is. He’s not coming. I wish he was here.”
The sick man seemed to see us. “That’s right now,” he said, whistling his breath. “Bring me my clothes, I want to go home.”