Dragon's Teeth by Eça de Queirós

ON coming to herself again, Luiza's first impression was that of two unknown faces bending over her. A moment afterwards one of them disappeared, and then the sharp sound of a glass bottle set down on the marble top of her dressing-table aroused her to fuller consciousness. She heard a voice saying softly, --

"She is better. Did it take her suddenly, Senhora Juliana?"

"Yes, suddenly; she came in very much excited."

She was conscious of soft footsteps on the carpet, followed by the voice of Joanna saying close beside her, --

"Are you better, Senhora?"

She opened her eyes and slowly returned to a clearer perception of things; she was lying on the sofa, and they had loosened her dress; there was a strong odor of vinegar in the room. She raised herself on her elbow, and looking around her with a wandering gaze, said, --

"And the other?"

"The Senhora Juliana? She was so upset by your fainting that she was obliged to go and lie down. Do you feel better now?"

Luiza sat up; she felt a sense of weariness in every limb, and it seemed to her as if the room was rocking to and fro.

"You may go, Joanna," she said.

"Does not the senhora want anything, -- a cup of broth, perhaps?"

When Luiza found herself alone she glanced around her in terror. Everything was in order, and the blinds were closed. One of her gloves had fallen on the floor; she rose slowly, picked it up, and straightening it out mechanically, put it away in the drawer of her bureau. She then smoothed her hair at the glass. She found herself changed, with a different expression of countenance, as if she were in reality another person; and the silence of the apartment impressed her vividly. "Senhora," said Joanna, timidly, at the door.

"What is it?"

"The coachman."

Luiza turned towards her, without comprehending.

"What coachman?"

"A coachman who says the senhora had no change, and told him to wait."

"Ah!"

And in an instant, as the whole interior of an apartment is disclosed at once to view by the lighting of a lamp within it, so was her misfortune, in all its completeness, revealed now to her mental vision. She trembled so violently that she could scarcely open the drawer of the bureau.

"I had forgotten him," she murmured.