At that thought the marrow froze in my bones.
"Hush," she said again; and just at that moment, as I strained my ears, I thought I caught upon the sleeping air a distant and very faint murmur.
"Oh, what is it, Constance ?" I said.

"You will drive me mad;" and while I spoke the murmur seemed to resolve itself into the vibration, felt almost rather than heard, of some distant musical instrument.

I stepped past her into the passage.

All was deadly still, but I could perceive that music was being played somewhere far away; and almost at the same minute my ears recognised faintly but unmistakably the _Gagliarda_ of the "Areopagita." I have already mentioned that for some reason which I can scarcely explain, this melody was very repugnant to me.

It seemed associated in some strange and intimate way with my brother's indisposition and moral decline.