If she had told me it was a joke I would have laughed.

If she had told me to put on my hat and go out with her I would have gone to put on my hat and gone out with her and never said a single word; I should have been convinced I had been mad for a minute or so, and I would have worried myself to death rather than breathe a hint of it to her or anyone.

But the wretch put her face close to mine and I could not move.
Directly I had looked into her eyes I felt grown on to the carpet." It was years afterwards that she used to talk like this to Mrs.Fyne--and to Mrs.Fyne alone.

Nobody else ever heard the story from her lips.

But it was never forgotten.