He very much wished she would tell him what had been so upsetting her since she had seen that black figure eight in the wainscoting. Not that it wasn’t a strangely sinister and upsetting discovery—even Julian couldn’t control a shudder at the thought of it. But Joel’s upset condition had been chronic. It was just because she claimed it would upset her more to talk of it than to try to forget it (oh, if she only _could_ forget it!) that he had decided not to urge her. Besides, she had said it was all a frightful nightmare, utterly impossible and false. She must, simply _must_, put it out of mind.
Julian, though, had been having a few weird and outrageous ideas himself; and he would have liked nothing better than to compare notes with Joel. Dorn was troubling him like a ghost or a vampire. The least stir of the curtains, the quietest footstep, went through his body with a needle-thrust of exquisite horror. Perhaps Belknap had not been alone in having a fleeting glimpse of the man—if man he still was. To Julian to be insane was to be inhuman. Something _had_ happened when Joel was in the library, Julian felt convinced of that. By signs of a strained understanding between her and Belknap he came to the conclusion they both knew what it was. He could almost have said they shared a guilty secret, as if they were shielding someone, against the rules of the game. Why in the name of heaven should they shield Dorn? He might have been a friend of Whittaker’s, but as far as Julian knew Joel had scarcely met him; and Belknap, the night before, had shown a positive dislike for him.
It might be Mrs. Crawford they were combining to protect. There seemed to be an all-around conspiracy to spare Sydney. Well, who could wonder, really? After Whittaker’s unspeakable betrayal, and Neil’s and Romany’s, and the thought of the Diary with its ghastly story ever appearing in print, who could blame her for getting her hands on the Diary if it meant Hartley Blake’s life—for revenging her honor if it meant Romany’s life—or her husband’s honor if it meant Whittaker’s? Or perhaps Belknap and Berry were closing in on Sydney obliquely, by way of pressure brought to bear on Neil. _That_ might break her to admission. Although the way she looked tonight, coming and going from the room where Neil lay ill and delirious, nothing short of death would break her.