u been admiring the sunset?"

"Ah, so much!" was her quick reply, and she began to saunter in slowly.
But I knew she left her thoughts out there with that mysterious grave.

* * * * *

12 M.

Another midnight adventure! Late as it is, I must put it down, for I
cannot sleep, and to-morrow will bring its own story.

I had gone to bed, but not to sleep. The anxieties under which I now
labor, the sense of mystery which pervades the whole house, and the
secret but ever-present apprehension of some impending catastrophe,
which has followed me ever since these women came into the house, lay
heavily on my mind, and prevented all rest. The change of room may also
have added to my disturbance. I am wedded to old things, old ways, and
habitual surroundings. I was not at home in this small and stuffy
apartment, with its one narrow window and wretched accommodations. Nor
could I forget near what it lay, nor rid myself of the horror which its
walls gave me whenever I realized, as I invariably did at night, that
only a slight partition separated me from the secret chamber, with its
ghastly memories and ever to be remembered horrors.

I was lying, then, awake, when some impulse--was it a magnetic
one?--caused me to rise and look out of the window. I did not see
anything unusual--not at first--and I drew back. But the impulse
returned, and I looked again, and this time perceived among the shadows
of the trees something stirring in the garden, though what I could not
tell, for the night was unusually dark, and my window very poorly
situated for seeing.

But that there was something there was enough, and after another vain
attempt to satisfy myself as to its character, I dressed and went out
into the hall, determined to ascertain if any outlet to the house was
open.

I did not take a light, for I know the corridors as I do my own hand.
But I almost wished I had as I sped from door to door and window to
window; for the events which had blotted my house with mystery were
beginning to work upon my mind, and I felt afraid, not of my shadow, for
I could not see it, but of my step, and the great gulfs of darkness that
were continually opening before my eyes.

However, I did not draw back, and I did not delay. I tried the front
door, and found it locked; then the south door, and finally the one in
the kitchen. This last was ajar. I knew then what had happened. Madame
has had more than one talk wi