She did not alter her position.
"A few hours after this dream I saw you. The spirit I had seen in my sleep stood before me in the flesh. This singular realisation of my vision made a deep impression. Its natural consequence was a great eagerness to know you. But how could I intrude? under what pretext could I force myself upon you? Last night I found an excuse—I met you again."
"How strange!" she muttered. She had dropped her forehead upon her hand and her deep eyes shone upon me through their long lashes.
"When I met you last night," I continued, "I was not alone. A companion was with me. You appeared to us as you had appeared to me. He saw you, and if you doubt the truth of what I say, will bear testimony. You stood at the gate; your eyes were fixed and your countenance turned towards us."
A look of distress entered her face.
"I did not know that I still walked in my sleep," she said.
"It is a dangerous habit, Mrs. Fraser."
"I will give directions to my servant. I am grateful to you now for your visit. I see you did not design to do me a rudeness. I should have received you more courteously; but I am not always my own mistress."
"Indeed?" I answered; "your candour is too charming to require excuses. You must believe that such ingenuousness is very refreshing to one who, like myself, has wasted the best part of his days amid sophisticated and conventional society, where truth is never possible because it must always be offensive."
"Don't you find it dull at Elmore Court?"