went in softly
and closed the door, and went up to the couch on which Eileen lay. She
lay with her eyes closed, and with all her gold chains still upon her
neck and arms; and the knight, because he trod softly, had come quite up
to her side before she knew that he was there. But the moment she opened
her eyes and saw him, she gave such a scream that it quite made him
leap; and if he had not bolted the door every creature in the castle
would have rushed into the room at the sound of it. Fortunately for him,
however, he had bolted the door; and as it was a very stout door, made
of strong oak, Eileen might have screamed for an hour before anybody
could have burst it open. As soon, therefore, as the knight had
recovered from the start she gave him, he quietly took a chair and sat
down by her side.

"Eileen," he said, beginning to speak at once--for probably he felt that
the matter he had come to mention was rather a painful and a delicate
one, and the more quickly he could get over what he had to say the
better--"Eileen, you have unhappily to-day seen me under--ahem!--under
an unaccustomed shape----"

He had only got so far as this, when Eileen gave another shriek and
covered her face with her hands.

"I say," repeated the knight, in a tone of some annoyance, and raising
his voice, for Eileen was making such a noise that it was really
necessary to speak pretty loudly--"I say you have unfortunately seen me
to-day under a shape that you were not prepared for; but I have come, my
love, to assure you that the--transformation--was purely accidental--a
mere blunder of a moment--an occurrence that shall never be repeated in
your sight. Look up to me again, Eileen, and do not let this eve of our
marriage-day----"

But what the knight had got to say about the eve of their marriage-day
Eileen never heard, for as soon as he had reached these words she gave
another shriek so loud that he jumped upon his seat.

"Do you think that I will ever marry a black cat?" cried Eileen, fixing
her eyes with a look of horror on his face.

"Eileen, take care!" exclaimed the knight sternly. "Take care how you
anger me, or it will be the worse for you."

"The worse for me! Do you think I am afraid of you?" said Eileen with
her eyes all flashing, for she had a high enough spirit, and was not
going to allow herself to be forced to marry a black cat, let the knight
say what he would. She rose from her couch and would have sprung to the
ground, i