Stephen was calm.
"I expected it," he answered.
She gave a step backward, and raised her frightened eyes to his.
"You expected it?" she faltered.
"I can't say why," he said quickly, "but it seems to me as if this had happened before. I know that I am talking nonsense—"
Virginia was trembling now. And her answer was not of her own choosing.
"It has happened before," she cried. "But where? And when?"
"It may have been in a dream," he answered her, "that I saw you as you stand there by my bridle. I even know the gown you wear."
She put her hand to her forehead. Had it been a dream? And what mystery was it that sent him here this night of all nights? She could not even have said that it was her own voice making reply.
"And I—I have seen you, with the sword, and the powdered hair, and the blue coat and the buff waistcoat. It is a buff waistcoat like that my great-grandfather wears in his pictures."