that's another matter. As a nobleman and landowner . . . though, indeed, even then what had I really to fear? Coward! coward!' . . .
'But wasn't it all a dream?' I asked myself at last. I called my housekeeper.
'Marfa, what o'clock did I go to bed yesterday — do you remember?'
'Why, who can tell, master? . . . Late enough, surely. Before it was quite dark you went out of the house; and you were tramping about in your bedroom when the night was more than half over. Just on morning — yes. And this is the third day it 's been the same. You 've something on your mind, it 's easy to see.'
'Aha-ha!' I thought. 'Then there 's no doubt about the flying. Well, and how do I look to-day?' I added aloud.
'How do you look? Let me have a look at you. You've got thinner a bit. Yes, and you 're pale, master; to be sure, there 's not a drop of blood in your face.'
I felt a slight twinge of uneasiness . . . I dismissed Marfa.
'Why, going on like this, you 'll die, or go out of your mind, perhaps,' I reasoned with myself, as I sat deep in thought at the window. 'I must give it all up. It 's dangerous. And now my heart beats so strangely. And when I fly, I keep feeling as though some one were
137
