“Well, they have all fled, every man and woman of them, the—” Sir Norman ground out something not quite proper, behind his moustache. “I shall have to go for the doctor, myself. Doctor Forbes is a friend of mine, and lives near; and you,” looking at him rather doubtfully, “would you mind staying here, lest she should recover consciousness before I return?”
“To tell you the truth,” said Ormiston, with charming frankness, “I should! The lady is extremely beautiful, I must own; but she looks uncomfortably corpse-like at this present moment. I do not wish to die of the plague, either, until I see La Masque once more; and so if it is all the same to you, my dear friend, I will have the greatest pleasure in stepping round with you to the doctor's.”
Sir Norman, though he did not much approve of this, could not very well object, and the two sallied forth together. Walking a short distance up Piccadilly, they struck off into a bye street, and soon reached the house they were in search of. Sir Norman knocked loudly at the door, which was opened by the doctor himself. Briefly and rapidly Sir Norman informed him how and where his services were required; and the doctor being always provided with everything necessary for such cases, set out with him immediately. Fifteen minutes after leaving his own house, Sir Norman was back there again, and standing in his own chamber. But a simultaneous exclamation of amazement and consternation broke from him and Ormiston, as on entering the room they found the bed empty, and the lady gone!
A dead pause followed, during which the three looked blankly at the bed, and then at each other. The scene, no doubt, would have been ludicrous enough to a third party; but neither of our trio could saw anything whatever to laugh at. Ormiston was the first to speak.
“What in Heaven's name has happened!” he wonderingly exclaimed.
“Some one has been here,” said Sir Norman, turning very pale, “and carried her off while we were gone.”
“Let us search the house,” said the doctor; “you should have locked your door, Sir Norman; but it may not be too late yet.”
Acting on the hint, Sir Norman seized the lamp burning on the table, and started on the search. His two friends followed him, and
“The highest, the lowest, the loveliest spot,
They searched for the lady, and found her not.”
No, though there was not the slightest trace of robbers or intruders, neither was there the slightest trace of the beautiful plague-patient. Everything in the house was precisely as it always was, but the silver shining vision was gone.