He had come back to the
Pension Malfait the night before feeling quite well, and as cheerful as
his disapproval of Sylvia Bailey's proceedings at the Casino allowed him
to be. And while thoroughly disapproving, he had yet--such being human
nature--been glad that Sylvia had won and not lost!
The Wachners had offered to drive him back to his pension, and he had
accepted, for it was very late, and Madame Wachner, in spite of her
Fritz's losses, had insisted on taking a carriage home.
And then, though he had begun by going to sleep, Chester had waked at the
end of an hour to feel himself encompassed, environed, oppressed by the
_perception_--it was far more than a sensation--that he was no longer
alone.
He sat up in bed and struck a match, at once longing and fearing to see
a form,--the semblance of a human being--rise out of the darkness.
But all he saw, when he had lighted the candle which stood on the table
by his bed, was the barely furnished room which, even in this poor and
wavering light, had so cheerful and commonplace an appearance.
Owing no doubt to his excellent physical condition, as well as to his
good conscience, Chester was a fearless man.
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