.

THE SENTENCE OF THE PATRIN.
Fleda waked suddenly, but without motion; just a wide opening of the eyes upon the darkness, and a swift beating of the heart, but not the movement of a muscle.

It was as though some inward monitor, some gnome of the hidden life had whispered of danger to her slumbering spirit.

The waking was a complete emergence, a vigilant and searching attention.
There was something on her breast weighing it down, yet with a pressure which was not weight alone, and maybe was not weight at all as weight is understood.

Instantly there flashed through her mind the primitive belief that a cat will lie upon the breasts of children and suck their breath away.