am
subtle. I am electric, magnetic, and spiritualistic. I am the great
ethereal sighheaver. I kill dogs. Mortal, wilt thou choose me?"

I was about to speak, but the words seemed to be choked in my throat;
and before I could get them out, the shadow flitted across the hall and
vanished in the darkness at the other side, while a long-drawn
melancholy sigh quivered through the apartment.

I turned my eyes toward the door once more, and beheld, to my
astonishment, a very small old woman, who hobbled along the corridor
and into the hall. She passed backward and forward several times, and
then, crouching down at the very edge of the circle upon the floor, she
disclosed a face, the horrible malignity of which shall never be
banished from my recollection. Every foul passion appeared to have
left its mark upon that hideous countenance. "Ha! ha!" she screamed,
holding out her wizened hands like the talons of an unclean bird. "You
see what I am. I am the fiendish old woman. I wear snuff-colored
silks. My curse descends on people. Sir Walter was partial to me.
Shall I be thine, mortal?"

I endeavored to shake my head in horror; on which she aimed a blow at
me with her crutch, and vanished with an eldrich scream.

By this time my eyes turned naturally toward the open door, and I was
hardly surprised to see a man walk in, of tall and noble stature. His
face was deathly pale, but was surmounted by a fringe of dark hair
which fell in ringlets down his back. A short pointed beard covered
his chin.

He was dressed in loose-fitting clothes, made apparently of yellow
satin, and a large white ruff surrounded his neck. He paced across the
room with slow and majestic strides. Then turning, he addressed me in
a sweet, exquisitely modulated voice.

"I am the cavalier," he remarked. "I pierce and am pierced. Here is
my rapier. I clink steel. This is a bloodstain over my heart. I can
emit hollow groans. I am patronized by many old conservative families.
I am the original manor-house apparition. I work alone, or in company
with shrieking damsels."

He bent his head courteously, as though awaiting my reply, but the same
choking sensation prevented me from speaking; and, with a deep bow, he
disappeared.

He had hardly gone before a feeling of intense horror stole over me,
and I was aware of the presence of a ghastly creature in the room, of
dim outlines and uncertain proportions. One moment it seemed to
pervade th