Eleanor looked down upon her, mutely nodding.
'There is a doctor coming to-morrow,' she said, almost in a whisper.
Lucy shuddered.
'But we have to get through the night,' said Eleanor.
'Oh! at night'—said Lucy—'if one found her there—beside one—one would die of it! I tried to shake her off just now, several times; but it was impossible.'
She tried to control herself, to complain no more, but she trembled from head to foot. It was evident that she was under some overmastering impression, some overthrow of her own will-power which had unnerved and disorganised her. Eleanor comforted her as best she could.
'Dalgetty and Edward will take care of her to-night,'—she said. 'And to-morrow, she will be sent to some special care. How she escaped from her room this afternoon I cannot imagine. We were all three on the watch.'
Lucy said nothing. She clung to Eleanor's hand, while long shuddering breaths, gradually subsiding, passed through her; like the slow departure of some invading force.
CHAPTER XI
After Manisty had carried off his sister, Eleanor and Lucy sat together in the garden, talking sometimes, but more often silent, till the sun began to drop towards Ostia and the Mediterranean.