Interest awoke in him. "What does she want of me?"
She listened. "She says, 'Trust Mr. Bartol.'"
He could see nothing, hear nothing, therefore his face lost its light.
"Well, we've got to trust him. He's all the help in sight."
Something, a breath, the light caress of a hand, passed over his hair, and a whisper that was almost tone spoke in his ear, "Fear nothing, if you will be guided and protected."
Sweet as this voice was, it irritated him, for he could not disassociate his mother from it. Indeed, it had something subtly familiar in its utterance, and yet he could not accuse her of deceit. He only roughly said: "Don't do that! I don't like that!"
Silence followed, and then his mother sadly said: "You have hurt her. She will not speak again."
"Let her show herself. How do I know who is speaking to me? Let me see her face again." He added this in a gentler voice, being moved by a vivid memory of the exquisite picture Altair had made.
After another pause Mrs. Ollnee answered: "She will do so. She says soon. She has gone; but your father wants to speak to you."
Victor rose impatiently. "Tell him to come again some other time. I'm sleepy now."