thought he heard the sound of someone walking in the wood before him. He stopped and listened: the steps were muffled, softly thunderous; they seemed so near that he thought that he must catch up with the one he followed in another second, and then they seemed immensely far away, receding in the dark mystery of that gloomy wood. And again he stopped and listened, the footsteps faded, vanished, he shouted, no one answered. And suddenly he knew that he had taken the wrong path, that he was lost. And in his heart there was an immense and quiet sadness, and the dark light of the enormous wood was all around him; no birds sang.
XXXIII
Gant awoke suddenly and found himself looking straight up at Eliza, who was seated in a chair beside the bed.
“You were asleep,” she said quietly with a grave smile, looking at him in her direct and almost accusing fashion.
“Yes,” he said, breathing a little hoarsely, “what time is it?”
It was a few minutes before three o’clock in the morning. She looked at the clock and told him the time: he asked where Helen was.
“Why,” said Eliza quickly, “she’s right here in this hall room: I reckon she’s asleep, too. Said she was tired, you know, but that if you woke up and needed her to call her. Do you want me to get her?”
“No,” said Gant. “Don’t bother her. I guess she needs the rest, poor child. Let her sleep.”
“Yes,” said Eliza, nodding, “and that’s exactly what you must do, too, Mr. Gant. You try to go on back to sleep now,” she said coaxingly, “for that’s what we all need. There’s no medicine like sleep—as the fellow says, it’s Nature’s sovereign remedy,” said Eliza, with that form of sententiousness that she was very fond of—“so you go on, now, Mr. Gant, and get a good night’s sleep, and when you wake up in the morning, you’ll feel like a new man. That’s half the battle—if you can get your sleep, you’re already on the road to recovery.”
“No,” said Gant, “I’ve slept enough.”
He was breathing rather hoarsely and heavily and she asked him if he was comfortable and needed anything. He made no answer for a moment, and then muttered something under his breath that she could not hear plainly, but that sounded like “little boy.”
“Hah? What say? What is it, Mr. Gant?” Eliza said. “Little boy?” she said sharply, as he did not answer.
