"I'll do anything you say, too, Mr. Castle. I'm willing to take the same pledge." This was, for her, the consummate sacrifice. She would, I am sure, have given her honor, if necessary, to save her mistress.
We were interrupted then, by Miss Fielding's appearance—I dare not call her Edna, lest one forgets that in almost every outward aspect she was unchanged. Indeed, had her body, instead of her mind, been metamorphosed, I think it would have been easier to adjust one's self to the strangeness of it. But Edna's words and Edna's actions constantly gave the lie to Joy's voice and Joy's face. One could not even treat her as insane. It was definitely another person in masquerade. My soul went out to her at the sight, to return chilled at the revelation of that strangeness. I was constantly being tricked by my memory. When I had become so interested in the conversation as not to notice her appearance it was easy enough to feel that I was talking to quite another than Joy, but upon my first sight of her, or when, after having looked away for a while my eyes returned suddenly to her, the surprise of Edna's words coming from Joy's lips gave me a shock. But with all this I had begun to accept Edna as a perversion, a distortion of Joy's self, rather than as a separate individuality, and I was caring too much for Joy, now, not to witness the working of the spell without a constant, fiery protest in my heart.
After our first greetings Leah disappeared, and we went into the dining-room. Edna sat opposite me at the table as I breakfasted, her elbows on the cloth, her chin on the backs of her clasped hands, looking at me.
"Well," she began, "I've forgotten again, Chet."
I wondered what was coming. She seemed more absorbed, more introspective than usual, for what of this phase she had heretofore manifested had appeared usually later in the day. She watched me, too, with a curious intentness.
"But you're not so bad as you have been," I offered. "You know you only lost a day, this time."
"No, I'm getting hold of myself, I believe. The doctor is helping me, I'm sure. I used to lose four or five days every week."
"I congratulate you!" I said, falsely enough, I confess. But I must at any cost placate her.
"How was I yesterday, Chet?"
"What d'you mean?"