Chapter XIX THE FLASH OF DAY

The mist came on thicker. It was so wetting that her clothes and face streamed with moisture, though she was too distressed to think of seeking shelter. The upper lawn appeared as a dark shadow against the paler grey of the sky, while the house itself was out of sight.

As she stood trying to overcome her agitation, something began to affect her ears. It was not exactly a sound, but was more like a heavy pulsing. Her head throbbed with it, till she thought she should go mad. Then it ceased abruptly.

Five minutes later, the figure of a man loomed up out of the mist and approached her. It wsa Judge. Isbel pressed her fur tightly to her throat and turned away.

"So it is you!"

When he replied, there wsa a suppressed exuberance in his voice which immediately arrested her attention by its unusualness.

"Yes, it is I."

"Then you told me an untruth? You have not gone to London?"

"I called here on my way back."

"Well, I got your letter. Perhaps you are wondering why I have followed you here, after having received my dismissal. I don't want anything from you, and I don't know myself why I came. Mrs. Richborough led me here. I know now that she's dead, but I have seen her and spoken to her, for all that."

Judge seemed not to remark her statement, for he asked another question:

"Did you hear my playing?"

"Your playing?"

"Yes."…He eyed her curiously. "Your manner is very extraordinary. Surely you recognise where you are? Are you awake or asleep?"

"I'm quite awake and I fully realise where I am, Mr. Judge. I'm trespassing in your grounds-but it won't be for long. I'm going home now."

"Haven't you been to the house?"

"Your house? Hardly, I think."

He drew a step closer, and for the first time she observed that he was not wearing a hat.

"Tell me where you think you are?"

"I have already told you. It is your manner which is very singular, Mr. Judge. Are you quite well?".

"Listen! I am talking with you here, and I am where we wished to be yesterday. Does it not seem so to you, too?"

"I don't understand you. Where did we wish to be yesterday?"

He gave her another searching look. "So you really are seeing differently. And you have not been up that staircase to-day?"

"I haven't set foot inside your house, I tell you. Have you lost your senses?"

"No; but I have been up that staircase to-day, and I have not yet come down again."

"Oh, my God!" said Isbel quietly.

"I was wretched, and could not keep away from the house. It contained all my memories. The stairs were there; I climbed them. Passing straight into that other room, I got through the window, and succeeded in reaching the ground without accident, though it was not easy…"

She stared at him with frightened eyes. "And where are you now?"

"I am standing beside you in the open country, in full sunshine-and it is spring, not autumn."

"You cannot believe it. You must see for yourself that it isn't so. Feel me-I'm wet with the fine rain."

But he came no nearer.

"The man is asleep, and the sight of his instrument put an idea into my head. I could not see you, but I felt you were somewhere in the neighbourhood-so I played to you…"

"What man?"

"The man we saw from the window yesterday."

There was an embarrassed silence.

"But this is awful!" said Isbel…"You must be attempting to mystify me, Mr. Judge. If not…"

"No, I am speaking the truth, Isbel; and I am quite rational."

The blood came to her face. "You have not yet acquired the right to call me by that name, Mr, Judge."

"You don't understand-but matters can be set right."

"Where are you now going?"

He had started to move off, but stopped at her question.

"I shall play again."

"But this is sheer insanity."

"You did not think so last evening, when we heard that music in the hall."

She said nothing.

"Let me go," proceeded Judge quietly. "I ask you only to reserve your judgement for five minutes, and in the meantime to wait here. Should I fail to open your eyes by then, I give you full permission to think of me what you will. Please wait."

Isbel stared after him with a puzzled frown, as he made his way up and across the long, wet grass. He had hardly taken ten steps before his form merged into the grey of the mist and was swallowed up. She heard nothing but the dripping of the sodden trees.

While waiting, with a fast-beating heart, for the outcome of this strange business, she experienced the same sensations in her ears as before. It was an inaudible throbbing, too marked to be disregarded, but so unassociated that she was unable even to decide if its cause were internal or external. After continuing for a minute or two, it left off as suddenly as it had started. Nearly at the same time she was surprised to see the day rapidly brightening. The sky grew lighter, and the mists thinner; she could look further away each moment. In less than five minutes after Judge's departure the sun itself had come through. The blue sky appeared, the ground vapours dispersed, and the whole country became visible. The transition ws so abrupt that she scarcely knew how to take it; almost in a flash, to the radiance and heat of an early summer day. A wind sprang up, and long before she had accommodated herself to the change there was not a wisp of cloud in the sky. She loosened her fur wrap.

She was standing in the same attitude-looking up towards the house. Suddenly a shock passed through her system. She had just realised the house was gone. It had vanished, absolutely and entirely. And not only the house, but its grounds as well, including the very lawn on which her foot had been resting…She discovered herself to be on the side of a steep, grassy hill, through the turf of which the naked chalk showed. She was some way down from the top, but there was not the least room for doubt that there was no building there; its bare ridge joined the sky from end to end…Here was a miracle indeed!…

Upon turning swiftly to see what was behind her, she was bewildered to meet the identical panorama which she and Judge had viewed yesterday from that window. The hillside she stood on was where the strangely-dressed man had been; she recognised at once by its general configuration and relation to the landscape. The sharp, smooth slope descended to the same little valley, along which flowed the same little brook; beyond it was that other hill, with the unbroken forest stretching to the horizon…after staring for a few moments, she clapped her hand to her eyes, and cried out. She could not understand it, and she feared she was on the point of losing her reason. But when she looked again she saw the same things, down to the smallest detail, and all was so brightly-coloured, so solid, so real in appearance, that she could not hesitate any longer to accept the scene as being actually existent…And it was so beautiful! The forest trees were clothed in fresh green leaves, the smaller trees in the valley underneath were smothered with white blossom, song-birds trilled and twittered, a wood pigeon was cooing softly, two distant cuckoos seemed to be answering each other, high overhead a lark fluttered and sang. The caressing wind brought to her the rich, moist fragrance of the whole countryside…Yes, yes-it was spring!…

She remembered everything. Every particular of her three visits to those other rooms at Runhill returned to her with startling distinctness, so that she was amazed how she could ever have forgotten. Moreover, her whole relation to Henry, both in private and in public, was suddenly made clear. She saw how worldly prudence on his side, angry pride on hers, had nearly succeeded in wrecking their happiness, and how this state of affairs had arisen, not from any fault of character on either part, not from any insufficiency of love, but from pure ignorance of the fact. They had not known that they belonged to each other…