tall and sturdy, who seemed to be following me, his eyes being fixed on
me; and when I turned it seemed to give him a kind of start, for he
looked away, and made as if he would cross to the other side. This
alarmed me, and I quickened my pace from a walk almost into a run,
resolving meanwhile not to look round again; yet I could not resist the
fancy that I heard steps coming after me; and glancing over my shoulder
I was aware of some one at no great distance off; on which I dared look
no more; and, being now very near home, I darted round to the back
entrance; and having got in and made the door fast, I sat down
trembling, to get my breath.

I was still much disquieted, when I heard the joyful sound of Althea's
signal at the back door; I flew to open to her, my hands trembling so I
could hardly withdraw the bolts. But when I got the door open, it was
not Althea who stood without, but that very man whom I had tried to
escape; he stood with his back to the sky, which was red and glowing,
for it was just past sunset; and I saw him to be tall and powerful and
roughly clad, so sunburnt that he might have been a Moor; and a long
scar that ran from his eyebrow half across his cheek gave a strange
fierceness to his look. This was all I could see, his back being to the
light, such as it was. I gave a smothered shriek, and would have shut
the door on him; but he said,--

'Not so hasty, mistress--look at me again, and you will not turn me
away, I think.'

But I still held the door in my hand, and said hastily, 'I can admit no
stranger--you should know this house is infected--what do you seek?' at
which the man's eyes, which I saw to be blue and bright, began to
twinkle, and he said,--

'You will think it odd, madam, but I am come seeking my true love--Lucia
Dacre is her name; do you know aught of her?' with which words he
smiled, and all his face changed in that smile into the face of my own
Harry.

My heart sprang up in sudden rapture; I think, as the play says, it
'leaped to be gone into his bosom,' for there I found myself the next
moment, clasped tight in his arms, and holding him tight enough too,
while I laughed and sobbed, crying out, 'Are you indeed my Harry? am I
so blest beyond all other women? have you come back to me, alive from
the dead?'

'You may say indeed, sweetheart, that I am alive from the dead,' he said
seriously; 'in a double sense I was dead and am alive again. But my tale
must wait for a better ti