'A year and a half ago,' he added, 'she was the boldest, brightest, happiest of young girls; the only heiress of a rich old man.'
'Many things may happen in a year and a half,' said the physician. 'Were I you, I would send her now to the Ladies of Calvary; their refuge is open day and night to any such case as hers.'
'So is my house,' said Othmar coldly. Turn her out at such an hour as this! He would not have turned out a dog that had trusted and followed him.
'He is always eccentric,' thought the man of medicine, 'and I dare say he goes for something in her misfortunes; he is confused and agitated.'
Aloud he said that he placed himself wholly at the disposition of Count Othmar. There was no immediate danger for the young girl; she had recovered consciousness in a measure, but she was dull and not clear of mind. He feared that, later on, fever or lung disease might be developed. He spoke long and learnedly with many scientific terms; his auditor heard him impatiently.
'Shall I see her?' he asked.
The other answered that this could be as he pleased.
Othmar hesitated a little while, then re-entered his library.
The electric light which illumined it bathed in its effulgence the poor dusky ill-clad form of Damaris, where it was stretched on the couch almost under the great statue of Andromache, sculptured by Mercier. Her clothes were rough, even ragged; her feet were clad in coarsest stockings of hemp; her whole figure was expressive of extreme poverty, that ugly and cruel thing which would blanch the cheeks of Aphrodite or Helen; and yet on her face, as the light fell on her where her head rested on the purple leather of the cushions, there was a great loveliness, though wan and dulled and fevered. The features had a sculpture-like repose, and the tumbled hair, though lustreless, was rich and of fine colour; her eyelids were closed; her mouth was half open, as if with pain or thirst.
Hung by a little piece of shabby ribbon from her throat he saw a small gold object. He was touched to the heart when he recognised in it the little maritime compass which he had begged her to keep in memory of their moonlit sail together.