For six days indeed she had been oblivious of the world outside, because
it needed all her attention to follow the hot, red, quick sights which
passed incessantly before her eyes. She knew that it was of enormous
importance that she should attend to these sights and grasp their
meaning, but she was always being just too late to hear or see something
which would explain it all. For this reason, the faces,--Helen's
face, the nurse's, Terence's, the doctor's,--which occasionally forced
themselves very close to her, were worrying because they distracted her
attention and she might miss the clue. However, on the fourth afternoon
she was suddenly unable to keep Helen's face distinct from the sights
themselves; her lips widened as she bent down over the bed, and she
began to gabble unintelligibly like the rest. The sights were all
concerned in some plot, some adventure, some escape. The nature of what
they were doing changed incessantly, although there was always a reason
behind it, which she must endeavour to grasp. Now they were among trees
and savages, now they were on the sea, now they were on the tops of high
towers; now they jumped; now they flew. But just as the crisis was about
to happen, something invariably slipped in her brain, so that the whole
effort had to begin over again. The heat was suffocating. At last the
faces went further away; she fell into a deep pool of sticky water,
which eventually closed over her head.
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