Then for the first time that evening--almost, indeed, for the first
time in her life--she felt afraid, so afraid that she made no attempt
to diagnose her fear; she understood the dogs' feelings now, and
caught herself wondering how much they knew.
She whistled to them again, not because she thought they would
respond,--she knew only too well they would not,--but because she
wanted company, even the company of her own voice; and she had some
faint hope, too, that whatever might be with her in the cellar, would
not so readily disclose itself if she made a noise. The one cellar was
passed, and she was nearly across the floor of the other when she
heard a crash. The candle dropped from her hand, and all the blood in
her body rushed to her heart. She could never have imagined it was so
terrible to be frightened. She tried to pull herself together and be
calm, but she was no longer mistress of her limbs. Her knees knocked
together and her hands shook. "It was only the dogs," she feebly told
herself, "I will call them"; but when she opened her mouth, she found
her throat was paralysed--not a syllable would come. She knew, too,
that she had lied, and that the hounds could not have been responsible
for the noise. It was like nothing she had ever heard, nothing she
could imagine; and although she struggled hard against the idea, she
could not help associating the sound with the cause of the candle
burning blue, and the sweet, sickly smell. Incapable of moving a
step, she was forced to listen in breathless expectancy for a
recurrence of the crash.
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