Rip, relapsing quickly from his perfunctory smile on the doctor, had again fallen asleep with an evident exceeding confidence and comfort, snoring his way into an apparent peace that passed all understanding.  But scarcely had the doctor spoken, giving Julian hope, than the little dog suddenly opened its eyes, shifted round in its nest of arm and bosom, smelt furtively at Valentine’s hand.  Then it turned from the hand to the side of its master, investigated it with a supreme anxiety, pursued its search as far as the white, strict face and bared bosom.  From the face it recoiled, and with a piercing howl like the scream of a dog run over by a cart, it sprang away, darted to the farthest corner of the room, and huddled close against the wall in an agony of terror.

Julian turned cold.  He believed implicitly that the trance at that very moment had deepened into death, and that the sleepless instinct of the dog had divined it partially while he slept, and now knew it and was afraid.  And the same error of belief shook Dr. Levillier.  A spasm crossed his thin, earnest face.  No death had ever hurt him so sharply as this death hurt him.  He saw Julian recoil in horror from the divan, and he could say nothing.  For he, too, felt horror.

But in this moment of despair Valentine’s hands slowly unclenched themselves, and the fingers were gradually extended as by a man stretching himself after a long sleep.

The doctor saw this, but believed himself a victim of a delusion, tricked by the excitement of his mind into foolish visions.  And Julian had turned quite away, trembling.  But now Valentine moved slightly, pressed his elbows on the cushions that supported him, and half sat up, still with closed eyes.

“Julian,” Dr. Levillier said in a low, summoning voice,—­“Julian, do you see what I see?  Is he indeed alive?  Julian.”

Then Julian, turning, saw, with the doctor, Valentine sit up erect, open his eyes and gaze upon his two friends with a grave, staring scrutiny.

“Valentine, Valentine, how you frightened me!  How you terrified me!” Julian at last found a voice to exclaim.  “Thank God, thank God! you are alive.  Oh, Valentine, you are alive; you are not dead.”

Valentine’s lips smiled slowly.

“Dead,” he answered.  “No; I am not dead.”

And again he smiled quietly, as a man smiles at some secret thought which tickles him or whips the sense of humour in him till, like an obeying dog, it dances.

Dr. Levillier, having regained his feet, stood silently looking at Valentine, all his professional instinct wide awake to note this apparent resurrection from the dead.

“You here, doctor!” said Valentine.  “Why, what does this all mean?”

“I want you to tell me that,” Levillier said.  “And you,” he added, now turning towards Julian.