ead, and looking up, I saw a figure leaning over the banisters. The
beauty of the face dazzled me for a moment, and the loveliness of the
eyes, which looked into mine and seemed to shine a red gold, held me
spellbound. Presently a voice, every whit as lovely as the face, said:
"So you are Jack's chum?" The most beautiful woman I have ever seen then
came slowly down the stairs, and slipping her arm through mine, led me
to the dining-room. As her hand rested on my coat-sleeve, I remember
noticing that the fingers were long, and thin, and pointed, and the
nails so polished that they almost shone red. Indeed, I could not help
feeling somewhat puzzled by the fact that everything about her shone red
with the exception of her skin, which, with an equal brilliancy, shone
white. At dinner she was lively, but she ate and drank very sparingly,
and as though food was loathsome to her.

"'Soon after dinner I felt so exceedingly tired and sleepy, a most
unusual thing for me, that I found it absolutely impossible to keep
awake, and consequently asked my host and hostess to excuse me. I woke
next morning feeling languid and giddy, and, while shaving, I noticed a
curious red mark at the base of my neck. I imagined I must have cut
myself shaving hurriedly the evening before, and thought nothing more
about it.

"'The following night, after dinner, I experienced the same sensation of
sleepiness, and felt almost as if I had been drugged. It was impossible
for me to keep awake, so I again asked to be excused! On this occasion,
after I had retired, a curious thing happened. I dreamed--or at least I
suppose I dreamed--that I saw my door slowly open, and the figure of a
woman carrying a candle in one hand, and with the other carefully
shading the flame, glide noiselessly into my room. She was clad in a
loose red gown, and a great rope of hair hung over one shoulder. Again
those red-gold eyes looked into mine; again I heard that low musical
laugh; and this time I felt powerless either to speak or to move. She
leaned down, nearer and nearer to me; her eyes gradually assumed a
fiendish and terrible expression; and with a sucking noise, which was
horrible to hear, she fastened her crimson lips to the little wound in
my neck. I remembered nothing more until the morning. The place on my
neck, I thought, looked more inflamed, and as I looked at it, my dream
came vividly back to me and I began to wonder if after all it was only a
dream. I felt frightf