The girl remained
without sound or movement on the chair. But when Heyst, placing the two
silver candelabra on the table, struck a match to light the candles,
she got up suddenly and went into the bedroom. She came out again almost
immediately, having taken off her hat. Heyst looked at her over his
shoulder.
"What's the good of shirking the evil hour? I've lighted these
candles for a sign of our return. After all, we might not have been
watched--while returning, I mean. Of course we were seen leaving the
house."
The girl sat down again. The great wealth of her hair looked very dark
above her colourless face. She raised her eyes, glistening softly in
the light with a sort of unreadable appeal, with a strange effect of
unseeing innocence.
"Yes," said Heyst across the table, the fingertips of one hand resting
on the immaculate cloth. "A creature with an antediluvian lower jaw,
hairy like a mastodon, and formed like a pre-historic ape, has laid this
table. Are you awake, Lena? Am I? I would pinch myself, only I know that
nothing would do away with this dream. Three covers. You know it is the
shorter of the two who's coming--the gentleman who, in the play of his
shoulders as he walks, and in his facial structure, recalls a Jaguar.
Ah, you don't know what a jaguar is? But you have had a good look at
these two. It's the short one, you know, who's to be our guest.
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