[Illustration: Cosmo and Aggie Dusting]
In the strength of Aggie's presence, he was now able to take a
survey of the room such as never before. Over walls, floor, and
ceiling, his eyes were wandering, when suddenly a question arose on
which he desired certainty: "Is there," he said to himself, "a door
upo' the ither side o' the bed?"
"Did Grannie mak mention o' sic a door?" he asked himself next, and
could not be certain of the answer. He gazed around him, and saw no
door other than that by which they had entered, but at the head of
the bed, on the other side, was a space hidden by the curtain: it
might be there! When they went to put the sheets on the bed, he
would learn! He dared not go till then! "Dare not!" he repeated to
himself--and went at once.
He saw and trembled. It was the strangest feeling. If it was not
fear, it was something very like it, but with a mixture of wondrous
pleasure: there was the door! The curtains hid Aggie, and for a
moment he felt as if he were miles alone, and must rush back to the
refuge of her presence. But he would not yield to the
folly--compelled himself to walk to the door.
Whether he was more disappointed or relieved, he could not, the
first instant, have told: instead of a door, scarcely leaning
against the wall, was an old dark screen, in stamped leather, from
which the gilding was long faded. Disappointment and not relief was
then his only sense.
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