Year: 1872

diabolical persistency, found its way back
to its old haunts. Perhaps this had been
his own bedroom, and that close by was
the lookup chamber where he distilled
the poison. Perhaps (and this terrible
thought made me shudder in spite
of myself) this was the very room
where the sick man had died in agony,
Oh this terrible house. l should never
feel happy in it again. My mind relapsed
into its old train of associations. One
special scene occurred to me it was that
where the two doctors, sent for by the
murderer, came to make an examination
of the body. He received them in the
hall with candle in his hand, and in
vited them in. He was courteous and
obliging. Sir William Wheeler, he said
what purpose they asked. Merely to
satisfy the family, he said, and showed
them letter from Sir William, express
ing such a wish, ''merely that those who
had been intimate with the dead might be
beyond suspicion" Had Sir William
written no other letter asked the more
suspicious ofthe doctors. Yes, there had
been another equally friendly. This sec
ond letter had been by no means friend
| ly, it had, indeed, words that expressed a
suspicion of poison. The guilty man
pretended to feel for this letter in his
waistcoat pocket, and in doing so pulled
out an envelope. The doctor had only
time for one glance, but that glance was
sufficient to show it was directed in Sir
Williams handwriting, still he said moth.
| ing. The examination did not take place.
and the detection or the crime was for a
time deferred, till keener and less trust
full medical man threw himselfw with untir-
ing energy into the pursuit of the subtle
criminal


| 1 looked up; it was half-past one. I
went at once to the bedside and tried to
rouse my husband to give him his medi-
| cine, but he only stirred once, reluctant
ly, gave deep sigh, and relapsed into
| sleep; so, undressing and putting on my
dressing-gown, l pressed together the
wood, now burnt to a white ash, and
threw myself on the bed beside my hus-
band. was just sinking into doze,
when a slight sound disturbed me- l was
highly sensitive just then from want of
sleep, and in moment I recovered my
senses. 1t was faint sound like some
one trying the handle of the bedroom
door. listened again-all was still. 1t
might have been a rat scratching behind
the wainscot; at night the faintest sound
becomes magnified by the Imagination l
sat up and listened; it was nothing. The
burning wood just then gave way and so
broke into slight blaze. l lay down
again, and 1 think fell asleep. 1 was
awakened, not by any sound, but bv a
creeping, indescribable sense of some
thing supernatural and terrible l looked
up without moving, and saw-to an in
finite horror that paralyzed every limb
the door softly noiselesslv open, and from
the outer darkness the figure of an old
man, dressed in an old yellow silk dressing
gown, glide in. He turned as he silently
| closed the door, and saw that his thin.
emaciated face was as pale as the dead;
that his head was bandaged and jaw
bound up as that of corpse is bound.
The vacant eyes that seemed entirely
colOrless were bent on the fireplace, and
the figure seemed not to notice the bed,
or those who were on it. Slowly gliding
over the floor, the spirit of the murdered
man-for such it seemed to me to be
moved toward the fire, and there stood
for moment as if wrapt in thought. 1t
then took bottle from the row on the
mantelpiece, examined it carefully and
went through the action of filling glass
with it. The figure then sat down in the
old chair by the fire, and sat there NOV
| ing its thin, white hands, that seemed al
most transparent, before and over the
flame. My courage recovering itself
slowly, l began now to question myself
seriously as to whether / was deIirious or
dreaming. To be sure was awake-softly
l stretched out my hand and pressed my
husbands arm. He slightly moved and
uttered a faint groan. l looked up and
counted the green and red flowers in
the cornice of the bed. Irecalled the po-
sition of the bell, which was out of my
reach. pulled off my rings and put
| ouoi,, r oh,
and saw the time, 1t was quarter past
two.


AS I lay there reasoning with myself
that the hall-door and the pale figure in
the faded yellow silk dressing gown were
only illusions of the senses, arising from
an Imagination rendered sensitive by eX-
citement, again pressed my husbands
hand tightly, so tightly that he moved
and feebly groaned. At the sound the
figure rose from the chair, stirred togeth-
er the embers, and advanced slowly to-
wards the bed. To my indescribable ter
ror, in the freight, l then saw that in one
hand it held a long glancing knife, the
blade of which it held turned upwards
against its arms.


The wood ashes in the CRATE had now
burned so low that they only cast faint
red glimmer on the floor, but there was
still quite enough light on the end of the
bed for me to see that the figure, raising
the knife, was stealing toward me. Twas
frozen with terror, and had perhaps less
power of voluntary movement left
through my fear than I imagined, for
lay there uttering no cry, moving nc
limb. At that moment the figure struck
against chair that stood by the table
where had been reading, and overset it.
In moment my brain seemed to recover
its lost power, my heart beat with renewed
force. That one slight fact convinced
me that the figure was not supernatural
One-it might be a murderes or sleep
walker-but it was common flesh and
blood. Its dreadful object l knew not


but there it stood, with the knife in its
hand, cycling US in blank, deadly way
and with sort of serpent-like malice.
had just resolved to spring upon it, strug
gle for the weapon, and scream for help
when it turned toward the door, anC
glided out as silently and in as dead-lik'
a way as it entered. 1 watched it an in
slant, and then, with a sudden flush o.
fresh life, darted from the bed, closed thu
door swiftly, turned the key, drew thu
bolt with the rapidity of lightning, anC
fell back on the floor in a swoon.


x


The next morning l went down ant
joined the party at breakfast as usual.


said nothing, but complained of sleepless
ness and not feeling we'll Great was tn


sympathy, and universal was the cry tha
l must not sit up watching another night
"My dear Mrs. -, you will take thes
things quieter year hence" said Sir Ed
, ward, cynically.


saw Lady Lawford fixing her eyes o,
me with peculiar earnestness.


When we had done breakfast, Lad
3 Lawford took me quietly apart into he


boudoir.


D Mrs. -" she said. taking my hand
: "you look very i'll. am woman of tn
l world, and older than you. You canno
t deceive me; something terrible mus
t have happened to you last night. L thin
t l can guess what it was. 1t was not th
/ watching alone that made your han
: shake as it now does Come, dear, te
s me-"


y I told her all, and concealed nothing
d from the thought about the prisoner
portrait to the moment that tainted.