When she came to herself, she was aware of a strong smell of vinegar. She was lying on the sofa, and Martha was applying a moistened kerchief to her brow. Lady Lacy stood by, alarmed and anxious, with a bottle of smelling-salts in her hand.
"Oh, aunt, I saw——" then she ceased. It would not do to tell of the apparition. She would not be believed.
"My darling," said Lady Lacy, "you are overdone, and it was foolish of you tearing upstairs and scrambling into your morning-gown. I have sent for Groves. Are you able now to rise? Can you manage to reach your room?"
"My room!" she shuddered. "Let me lie here a little longer. I cannot walk. Let me be here till the doctor comes."
"Certainly, dearest. I thought you looked very unlike yourself all day at the regatta. If you had felt out of sorts you ought not to have gone."
"Auntie! I was quite well in the morning."
Presently the medical man arrived, and was shown in. Betty saw that Lady Lacy purposed staying through the interview. Accordingly she said nothing to Dr. Groves about what she had seen.
"She is overdone," said he. "The sooner you move her down to Devonshire the better. Someone had better be in her room to-night."
"Yes," said Lady Lacy; "I had thought of that and have given orders. Martha can make up her bed on the sofa in the adjoining dressing-room or boudoir."
This was a relief to Betty, who dreaded a return to her room—her room into which her other self had gone.