Still for several moments more Tory read on. A few verses and she would have finished reading Tennyson’s “Idylls of the King.” The poems had held her enchanted many hours.
Not that Tory had read for so long a time without stopping. Twice she had thrown herself upon the couch drawn near the fire and had done her best to sleep. On both occasions the terror of the night and storm and her loneliness seized hold on her.
Every Girl Scout resolution was summoned and recited. Now and then Tory repeated them aloud to fortify her courage. Notwithstanding, she continued unable to lose consciousness, and rising again would go back to her book.
Fortunately for Victoria Drew, since her arrival in Westhaven the winter before she had become the intimate comrade of her uncle, Mr. Richard Fenton. In the beautiful library at the Fenton house she frequently prepared her school lessons for the following day. Oftentimes in search of a special piece of information she would hunt among the old books on the shelves above her head. Occasionally she sat listening while Mr. Fenton read aloud.
Until her friendship with her uncle Tory had not cared a great deal for books. She was not so enthusiastic a reader as several other girls in her Patrol of Scouts. But there were certain stories and romances, pages of history that appealed to Tory’s ardent imagination with peculiar force.
She would have explained that she loved to read whatever created the most vivid mental picture.
In this lay the fascination for Tory in Tennyson’s “Idylls of the King.” She had never read the entire group of poems until to-night; only listened to an occasional extract or quotation recited by Mr. Fenton. She had, however, heard the story of King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table.
To intensify her interest Mr. Fenton had described the frescoes of Sir Galahad and his search for the Holy Grail, painted by a great artist. He had promised to take her some day to Boston to see them.
Alone to-night, Tory had seen her own vision, and been inspired with a new idea.
Now she was weary and very sleepy.