Dick was putting the horse to the phaeton. He told me he had heard his
master, two hours before, saddle Thanatos, and ride away. This made me
yet more anxious about him. He did not often ride out early--seldom
indeed after coming home late! Things seemed to threaten complication!
John looked so much better, and was so eager after the projected
interview with his lawyer, that I felt comforted concerning him. I did
not tell him what my uncle had said the night before. It would, I felt,
be wrong to mention what my uncle might wish forgotten; and as I did not
know what he meant, it could serve no end. We parted at the station very
much as if we had been married half a century, and I returned home to
brood over the strange things that had happened. But before long I found
myself in a weltering swamp of futile speculation, and turned my thoughts
perforce into other channels, lest I should lose the power of thinking,
and be drowned in reverie: my uncle had taught me that reverie is Phaeton
in the chariot of Apollo.
The weary hours passed, and my uncle did not come. I had never before
been really uneasy at his longest absence; but now I was far more anxious
about him than about John. Alas, through me fresh trouble had befallen my
uncle as well as John! When the night came, I went to bed, for I was very
tired: I must keep myself strong, for something unfriendly was on its
way, and I must be able to meet it! I knew well I should not sleep until
I heard the sounds of his arrival: those came about one o'clock, and in a
moment I was dreaming.
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