“It is so late; the lights are out,” she quavered, “and I am afraid of the ghosts in the passages.”
“If he thought in his heart that I might be innocent, it would trouble him on the day of his death, I think,” said the Princess. She seated herself in the worn chair. “I feel very cold,” she added.
Madame von Arlestein turned back into the room and let the door swing to behind her.
“My eyes dazzle with the firelight,” said Sophia Dorothea. “Something is going to happen–at last.”
“It was speaking of the past,” answered the Countess. “Why did we when we had been silent so long?”
“I have described a circle,” murmured the Princess, “and I am back again to that night.”
“You are ill. I will call some one—”
“No,” said her mistress in a terrible voice. “Call no one.”
The Countess replaced the candle on the mantelshelf.