"I saw the flame in her eyes again
to-day, in Cuckoo's eyes. It held me with her. I'll swear it held me. It
wouldn't let me go--wouldn't let me--till now!"
He sank down in a chair by the window, and turning his back on them,
pushed his head out to get air.
"I say," he suddenly called. "What's that, that lying there?"
Valentine and the doctor joined him. He was pointing to the body of Rip,
which was already almost covered by the snow.
"That," Valentine said; "that is--"
"The body of a creature that died fighting," the doctor interrupted. "A
fine fashion of dying. Look at it, Julian. Its soul was indomitable to
the last, and so it won the battle it fought. It won by its very death
even. Nature is at work on its winding-sheet."
Valentine said nothing.
CHAPTER V
DOCTOR LEVILLIER VISITS THE LADY OF THE FEATHERS
Julian's utterance about the flame that held him with the lady of the
feathers struck Dr. Levillier forcibly at the time it was made, and
remained in his mind. He could not fail to connect it with his own
experience in Valentine's empty room, and, going further back, with
the last sitting of the two young men which was succeeded by the long
trance of Valentine. And as he thought of these things, it suddenly
occurred to him that the ghastly change which had taken place in
Valentine might well date from that night.
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