“Leave her alone with me.  There are still many hours to pass, and I do not like to leave her lying there, all stark in the glare of light.  This may be the Bridal she prepared for—­the Bridal of Death; and at least she shall wear her pretty robes.”

When presently she brought me back to her room, the dead Queen was dressed in the robe of fine linen with the embroidery of gold; and all her beautiful jewels were in place.  Candles were lit around her, and white flowers lay upon her breast.

Hand in hand we stood looking at her for a while.  Then with a sigh, Margaret covered her with one of her own snowy sheets.  She turned away; and after softly closing the door of the room, went back with me to the others who had now come into the dining room.  Here we all began to talk over the things that had been, and that were to be.

Now and again I could feel that one or other of us was forcing conversation, as if we were not sure of ourselves.  The long wait was beginning to tell on our nerves.  It was apparent to me that Mr. Trelawny had suffered in that strange trance more than we suspected, or than he cared to show.  True, his will and his determination were as strong as ever; but the purely physical side of him had been weakened somewhat.  It was indeed only natural that it should be.  No man can go through a period of four days of absolute negation of life without being weakened by it somehow.

As the hours crept by, the time passed more and more slowly.  The other men seemed to get unconsciously a little drowsy.  I wondered if in the case of Mr. Trelawny and Mr. Corbeck, who had already been under the hypnotic influence of the Queen, the same dormance was manifesting itself.  Doctor Winchester had periods of distraction which grew longer and more frequent as the time wore on.

As to Margaret, the suspense told on her exceedingly, as might have been expected in the case of a woman.  She grew paler and paler still; till at last about midnight, I began to be seriously alarmed about her.  I got her to come into the library with me, and tried to make her lie down on a sofa for a little while.  As Mr. Trelawny had decided that the experiment was to be made exactly at the seventh hour after sunset, it would be as nearly as possible three o’clock in the morning when the great trial should be made.  Even allowing a whole hour for the final preparations, we had still two hours of waiting to go through, and I promised faithfully to watch her and to awake her at any time she might name.  She would not hear of it, however.  She thanked me sweetly and smiled at me as she did so; but she assured me that she was not sleepy, and that she was quite able to bear up.  That it was only the suspense and excitement of waiting that made her pale.  I agreed perforce; but I kept her talking of many things in the library for more than an hour; so that at last, when she insisted on going back to her father’s room I felt that I had at least done something to help her pass the time.