ted; and in support of this feeling I was assured
that if the assertion of Lord Glenfallen, which nothing in this woman's
manner had led me to disbelieve, were true, namely that her mind was
unsound, the whole fabric of my doubts and fears must fall to the
ground.

I determined to state to Lord Glenfallen freely and accurately the
substance of the communication which I had just heard, and in his words
and looks to seek for its proof or refutation. Full of these thoughts,
I remained wakeful and excited all night, every moment fancying that I
heard the step or saw the figure of my recent visitor, towards whom I
felt a species of horror and dread which I can hardly describe.

There was something in her face, though her features had evidently been
handsome, and were not, at first sight, unpleasing, which, upon a nearer
inspection, seemed to indicate the habitual prevalence and indulgence
of evil passions, and a power of expressing mere animal anger, with an
intenseness that I have seldom seen equalled, and to which an almost
unearthly effect was given by the convulsive quivering of the sightless
eyes.

You may easily suppose that it was no very pleasing reflection to me to
consider that, whenever caprice might induce her to return, I was within
the reach of this violent and, for aught I knew, insane woman, who had,
upon that very night, spoken to me in a tone of menace, of which her
mere words, divested of the manner and look with which she uttered them,
can convey but a faint idea.

Will you believe me when I tell you that I was actually afraid to leave
my bed in order to secure the door, lest I should again encounter
the dreadful object lurking in some corner or peeping from behind the
window-curtains, so very a child was I in my fears.

The morning came, and with it Lord Glenfallen. I knew not, and indeed I
cared not, where he might have been; my thoughts were wholly engrossed
by the terrible fears and suspicions which my last night's conference
had suggested to me. He was, as usual, gloomy and abstracted, and I
feared in no very fitting mood to hear what I had to say with patience,
whether the charges were true or false.

I was, however, determined not to suffer the opportunity to pass,
or Lord Glenfallen to leave the room, until, at all hazards, I had
unburdened my mind.

'My lord,' said I, after a long silence, summoning up all my
firmness--'my lord, I wish to say a few words to you upon a matter of
very grea