ht not a civil intimation that his
health was suffering from his _sejour_ incline him to depart?"

The Countess made no reply: possibly the bantering tone assumed by her
companion displeased her. After a brief silence, he resumed,--

"Does the man play? does he frequent the Saal? There surely are a
hundred ways to force a quarrel on him."

"Easier than terminate it with advantage," said she, bitterly.

I heard no more; for, although they still continued to speak, they had
descended from the terrace and entered the garden. I was alone. Before
me, at the turn of the road, stood my servant, waiting with the horses.
All was still as the grave. Was this I had heard real? were the words
truly spoken, or were they merely some trick of an overwrought, sickly
imagination! I moved into the middle of the road, so as to have a better
view of the old "Schloss;" but, except a single light in a remote tower,
all was shrouded in darkness: the salon, I believed to have been lit
up, lay in deepest shadow. There was nothing I had not given, at that
instant, to be able to resolve my doubts.

I walked hurriedly on, eager to question my servant both as to the
voices and the lights; and as I went my eye fell upon an object before
me in the road. I took it up--it was a glove--a lady's glove! How came
it there, if it had not fallen from the terrace?

With increased speed I moved forward, my convictions now strengthened by
this new testimony.

My servant had neither seen nor heard any thing; indeed his replies
to me were conveyed in a tone that shewed in what light he regarded my
questioning. It was scarcely possible that he could not have been struck
with the bright glare that illuminated a portion of the castle, yet he
had not seen it; and as to voices, he stoutly averred that, although he
could distinctly note the clatter of the mill in the valley below us, he
had heard no human sound since we left the little inn.

It was to no purpose that I questioned and cross-questioned. I soon
saw that my eagerness was mistaken by him for evidence of wandering
faculties; and I perceived, in his anxiety that I should return, a fear,
that my malady had taken some new turn. So far, too, was he right. My
head was, indeed, troubled--strange fancies and shadowy fears crossing
my excited mind as I went; so that, ere I reached my inn, I really was
unable to collect my faculties, and separate the dream-land from the
actual territory of fact. And now it is