dark, and there was no sound of the spinning-wheel. She grew
frightened
once more, thinking that, although the room was there, the old lady
might be a dream after all. Every little girl knows how dreadful it is
to find a room empty where she thought somebody was; but Irene had
to
fancy for a moment that the person she came to find was nowhere at
all.
She remembered however that at night she spun only in the moonlight,
and
concluded that must be why there was no sweet, bee-like humming: the
old
lady might be somewhere in the darkness. Before she had time to think
another thought, she heard her voice again, saying as before--
"Come in, Irene."
From the sound, she understood at once that she was not in the room
beside her. Perhaps she was in her bedroom. She turned across the
passage, feeling her way to the other door. When her hand fell on the
lock, again the old lady spoke--
"Shut the other door behind you, Irene. I always close the door of my
workroom when I go to my chamber."
Madhuri Noah
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