But with the exception of the doctor and possibly the nurse, only those interested in her as a witness in the most perplexing case on the police annals, were grouped in silent watchfulness about the room, waiting for the word or look which might cut the Gordian knot which none of them, as yet, had been able to untangle.
It came suddenly, as all great changes come.

One moment her lids were down, her face calm, her whole figure quiet in its statue-like repose; the next, her big violet eyes had flashed open upon the world, and lips and limbs were moving feebly, but certainly, in their suddenly recovered freedom.

It was then--and not at a later moment when consciousness had fully regained its seat--that her face, to those who stood nearest wore the aspect of an angel's.

What she saw, or what vision remained to her from the mysterious world of which she had so long been a part, none ever knew--nor could she, perhaps, have told.

But the rapture which informed her features and elevated her whole expression but poorly prepared them for the change which followed her first glance around on nurse and doctor.