Then reason took over. I dropped to the floor and crawled until I reached the far wall again and then crawled back obliquely until I found the stairs, went down them, half-­falling, and threw myself against the door, screaming Duff’s name.

He opened the door.

“Mother, what have you been doing? You’re a mess.”

“You locked me up there,” I sobbed.

“Mother, the door wasn’t locked. Look, there’s no key. An air current must have blown the door shut.”

“The key is on your bureau.”

“No, it isn’t. I did find it a few weeks ago and I went up to the third floor once, but then I misplaced the key.”

“You lie, you lie, just as you lied to the psychiatrist!”

“Mother, Mother . . .”

He tried to put his arm around me, but I pulled away from him and ran to his room. There was no key on the bureau now, but the eyeglasses were still where I had left them.

Duff picked them up. “These are yours, Mother.”

“They’re yours!”

“Try them on.”

I refused to try them. I was sure they weren’t mine. They looked like a pair of mine, it was true, a pair I seldom wore. In fact I never wore them except for sewing.

“Where are yours, if these are mine?”

“Here.” He took another pair of glasses from his shirt pocket. They were very like the other pair, although the lenses were thicker. Duff had switched them, I was sure. He had gone to my purse or my sewing basket and gotten my glasses and then put them on his bureau in place of his.

“Liar,” I said softly. “You’re a liar, as well as something worse.” I walked away from him and went into my room and closed and locked the door.

He came and knocked at the door later, and so did Franny and Jack, begging me to come down to dinner, but I refused. In fact, after a while I didn’t even bother answering them.

General Caine came to me again that night while I slept. Shortly after dawn I awoke and he was gone, but again there was evidence that he had been there.

I got out of bed and went to my dresser and picked up my brush. Then I stood in front of the mirror, and began to brush my hair. I think I had only just lifted the brush when I fainted.

BOOK FOUR

Book Four

19

Chapter Nineteen

A pounding on the door brought me back to consciousness. I grabbed the end of the bed and pulled myself up, not remembering anything for a moment. I went to the door and unlocked it. Duff came in, wearing pajamas.

“What’s wrong, Mother?” He switched on the light.

“Nothing,” I said.

“You were screaming and then I heard a thud. Did you fall out of bed?”

“I guess I must have.”

“Did you have a nightmare?”