womankind had swathed all their fiercer human emotions with shy
decorum and stern modesty, as Turkish women swathe their faces with
veils.

Madelon, still under the fear of Eugene, pressed inside the door as
she spoke, and he stood aside half involuntarily. "I beg you to let
me see her," she repeated. She looked at the stately wind of the
stairs up to the second floor, as if she were minded to ascend
without bidding to Dorothy's chamber.

"She is ill in her chamber," the Parson said again, with a kind of
forbidding helplessness.

"I would see her only for a minute. I beg you to let me, sir. It is
life and death, I tell you--it is life and death!"

Whether Parson Fair motioned her to ascend, or whether he simply
stood aside to allow her to pass, he never knew, but Madelon was up
the winding stairs with a swirl of her cloak, as if the wind had
caught it. Parson Fair followed her, and motioned her to the south
front chamber, and was about to rap on the door when it was flung
open violently, and the great black princess stood there, scowling at
them.

"I have a guest here for your mistress," said Parson Fair; but the
black woman blocked his way, speaking fast in her wrathful gibberish.

However, at a stately gesture from her master she stood aside, and he
held the door open, and Madelon entered. "You had better not remain
long, to tire her," said the parson, and closed the door. Immediately