ccount is that to which we have already
listened from Charon's lips. And he perhaps built on a broader basis
of truth than did the other yarn-spinners. But under whatever form the
legend appeared, there was always mingled with it a vaguely mysterious
whisper relating to the alleged presence in the Doctor's Den (so the
enclosure was nicknamed) of an apparition in female form. What or
whence she was no one pretended soberly to conjecture. Even her
personal aspect was the subject of vehement dispute; some maintaining
her to be of more than human beauty, while others swore by their heads
that she was so hideous fire would not burn her! These damned her for
a malignant witch; those upheld her as a heavenly angel, urged by love
divine to expiate, through voluntary suffering, the nameless crimes of
the demoniac Doctor. But unless the redemption were effected within a
certain time, she must be swallowed up with him in common destruction.
Were the how and wherefore of these alternatives called in question,
the answer was a wise shake of the head!

The gentle reader will believe no one of the fantastic legends here
recorded; possibly they were not believed by their very fabricators.
They are useful only as tending to show the moral atmosphere of the
house and its occupants. There is sometimes a subtile symbolic element
inwoven with such tales, which--though not the truth--helps us to
apprehend the truth when we come to know it. Moreover, the fanciful
parts of history are to the facts as clouds to a landscape; a picture
is incomplete without them; they aid in bringing out the distances,
and cast lights and shadows over tracts else harsh and bare.

Beyond what he had gathered from the ancient mariner, Balder Helwyse
knew nothing of these fearful fables. This perhaps accounted for the
boldness wherewith he pursued his way towards the mysterious house,
following in the airy wake of the clear-throated little hoopoe.

XVII.

FACE TO FACE.

The ground-plan of the house was like a capital H placed endwise
towards the river. The northern side consisted of the original brick
building and the additions of the second period; the southern was that
stone edifice which so few persons had been lucky enough to see. The
centre or cross-piece comprised the grand entrance-hall and staircase,
heavily panelled with dark oak, and the floor flagged with squares of
black and white marbles.

This entrance-hall opened eastward into a generou