She had left a lamp burning in the sitting-room that adjoined her bedroom, and the door between ajar, so that she was not lying in complete darkness.

She had done the same the previous night, and had felt no serious qualms.

The light scarcely reached her, but it was a comfort to see it at hand when she opened her eyes.

It gave her a sense of security, and she slept the more easily because of it.
So for an hour or more she lay in unbroken slumber; then, like a cloud arising out of her sea of oblivion, there came to her again that dream of two horsemen galloping.

It was a terrible dream, all the more terrible because she knew so well what was coming.