When the door had closed after Dr.Oleander, she had dropped on the floor like a stone, and had never stirred since.
She was not in a faint.

She saw the ruddy blaze of the fire, as the tongues of flame leaped like red serpents up the chimney; she heard the wild howling of the night wind, the ceaseless dash and fall of the rain, the indescribable roar of the raging sea; she heard the trees creak and toss and groan; she heard the rats scampering overhead; she heard the dismal moaning of the old house itself rocking in the gale.
She saw, she heard, but as one who neither sees nor hears; like one in a drugged, unnatural stupor.

She could not think; an iron hand seemed to have clutched her heart, a dreadful despair to have taken possession of her.

She had made a horrible, irreparable mistake; she was body and soul in the power of the man she hated most on earth.

She was his wife!--she could get no further than that.
The stormy night wore on; midnight came and the elemental uproar was at its height.