but handsomely intellectual face, he half dreaded
the disclosure he yet panted to hear.

"Tell me all, Henry--tell me all," he said. "Upon the words that come
from your lips I know I can rely."

"I will have no reservations with you," said Henry, sadly. "You ought to
know all, and you shall. Prepare yourself for the strangest revelation
you ever heard."

"Indeed!"

"Ay. One which in hearing you may well doubt; and one which, I hope, you
will never find an opportunity of verifying."

"You speak in riddles."

"And yet speak truly, Charles. You heard with what a frantic vehemence
Flora desired you to think no more of her?"

"I did--I did."

"She was right. She is a noble-hearted girl for uttering those words. A
dreadful incident in our family has occurred, which might well induce
you to pause before uniting your fate with that of any member of it."

"Impossible. Nothing can possibly subdue the feelings of affection I
entertain for Flora. She is worthy of any one, and, as such, amid all
changes--all mutations of fortune, she shall be mine."

"Do not suppose that any change of fortune has produced the scene you
were witness to."

"Then, what else?"

"I will tell you, Holland. In all your travels, and in all your reading,
did you ever come across anything about vampyres?"

"About what?" cried Charles, drawing his chair forward a little. "About
what?"

"You may well doubt the evidence of your own ears, Charles Holland, and
wish me to repeat what I said. I say, do you know anything about
vampyres?"

Charles Holland looked curiously in Henry's face, and the latter
immediately added,--

"I can guess what is passing in your mind at present, and I do not
wonder at it. You think I must be mad."

"Well, really, Henry, your extraordinary question--"

"I knew it. Were I you, I should hesitate to believe the tale; but the
fact is, we have every reason to believe that one member of our own
family is one of those horrible preternatural beings called vampyres."

"Good God, Henry, can you allow your judgment for a moment to stoop to
such a supposition?"

"That is what I have asked myself a hundred times; but, Charles Holland,
the judgment, the feelings, and all the prejudices, natural and
acquired, must succumb to actual ocular demonstration. Listen to me, and
do not interrupt me. You shall know all, and you shall know it
circumstantially."

Henry then related to the astonished Charles Holland all that had
occu