Go now to your own room and reflect.

For two hours nobody shall disturb you." The girl mechanically complied with his commands.

She put back the ominous documents in their receptacle and withdrew to her room.

There she stood in front of a vase of flowers and regarded their green leaves for an hour without moving.

In the vase was a fine specimen of one of those wondrous tropical plants whose leaves never fall off, one of those plants which the seasons leave unchanged and which, therefore, is such a beautiful emblem of constancy.