Page:Resurrection Rock (1920).pdf/286

 And the absence of any materiality almost disappointed Lucas; it left him too helpless.

He shut down the window, as it had become very cold in the room; but he paced about in the dark, thinking; and his shrewd, selfish, cruel mind attacked his problem of silencing that ghost by assault upon the physical elements with whose laws Lucas was completely familiar. He succeeded in entirely shutting out, from his thoughts, the effect of "Galilee" while he considered the relations of Ethel and Barney Loutrelle. An idea, half formed, seized him; and he stood stark. It progressed in his mind; and he laughed. In a reaction, it revolted himself; he discarded it; but it came back to him, more convincingly, more complete, and it promised him triumph. So again he laughed and clung to it; in the dark alone, he planned and schemed and chuckled to himself; and undressed there in the dark, so as not to see his own face, while he perfected and determined upon what he had to do.

It was after nine the next morning before Ethel awoke; and then it was so delightful to lie in bed, dreaming over the hours of the evening, that she made no stir, and it was ten when Mrs. Wain at last became convinced that her guest was awake and knocked gently at the door.

She sent in a maid with a breakfast tray, and upon it was a box from a florist which Ethel instantly opened to discover within orchids amid fern; and with them a note:

How can I trust my memories this morning? I would bring these; I would have waited from daylight at your door; may I come early this afternoon? I