"Oh, not that! Not that!"
Her mother paused. "Will you wear it to-morrow if Sir Eustace will have
you?" she demanded.
"No! Oh no!" Dinah tottered back against her bed and covered her eyes.
She could not watch the destruction of that fairy thing. But it went so
quickly, so quickly. When she looked up again, it had crumbled away like
the rest, and the shimmering veil with it. Nothing, nothing was left of
all the splendour that had been hers.
She sank down on the foot of the bed. Surely her mother would be
satisfied now! Surely her lust for vengeance could devise no further
punishment!
She was nearing the end of her strength, and she was beginning to know
it. The room swam before her dizzy sight. Her mother's figure loomed
gigantic, scarcely human.
She saw her poke down the last of the cinders and turn to the door. There
was a pungent smell of smoke in the room. She wondered if she would ever
be able to cross that swaying, seething floor to open the window. She
closed her eyes and listened with straining ears for the closing of the
door.
It came, and following it, a sharp click as of the turning of a key. She
looked up at the sound, and saw her mother come back to her. She was
carrying something in one hand, something that dangled and east a
snake-like shadow.
She came to the cowering girl and caught her by the arm. "Now get up!"
she ordered brutally.
Pages:
449
450
451
452
453
454
455
456
457
458
459
460
461
462
463
464
465
466
467
468
469
470
471
472
473