Page:Tales of Today.djvu/203

Rh "He has hidden himself away somewhere, depend on't."

She waited a long time, then, her fears being somewhat reassured, came to the conclusion:

"I must have been dreaming, since he don't come out and show himself."

She was just closing her eyes again, a little emboldened by this reflection, when, close to her ear, as it seemed, exploded the wrathful voice, the drowned man's voice of thunder, vociferating:

"Name of a name, of a name, of a name, will you get up, you!"

She sprang from her bed, impelled by the instinct of obedience, by the blind obedience of a woman who has known many a beating, who remembers still, after four years have gone by, and who will always remember and always obey that dread voice. And she said:

"Here I am, Patin; what do you want?"

But Patin answered not.

Then she looked about her wildly, distractedly; then she searched the room through, every part of it, the closets, the fireplace, beneath the bed, and found no one; and at last she sank into a chair, beside herself with terror, certain that Patin's spirit, divested of its earthly garb, was there, at her side, returned again to earth to torment her.

All at once she thought of the garret, which could be reached from outside by means of a ladder. There could be no doubt of it, he had concealed himself up there the better to surprise her. It must have been that the savages had held him prisoner upon some distant coast and he had been unable to escape them until then, and now he was returned, more ruffianly