n for such things as I left at my lodgings. When I settle
somewhere and can give an address, I shall direct them to be sent to me.
There are, I hear, beautiful patches of scenery towards the north, only
known to pedestrian tourists. I am a good walker; and you know, Fenwick,
that I am also a child of Nature. Adieu to you both; and many thanks to
you, Strahan, for your hospitality."

He left the room.

"I am not sorry he is going," said Strahan, after a pause, and with a
quick breath as if of relief. "Do you not feel that he exhausts one? An
excess of oxygen, as you would say in a lecture."

I was alone in my own chamber; I felt indisposed for bed and for sleep;
the curious conversation I had held with Margrave weighed on me. In that
conversation, we had indirectly touched upon the prodigies which I had
not brought myself to speak of with frank courage, and certainly nothing
in Margrave's manner had betrayed consciousness of my suspicions; on the
contrary, the open frankness with which he evinced his predilection for
mystic speculation, or uttered his more unamiable sentiments, rather
tended to disarm than encourage belief in gloomy secrets or sinister
powers. And as he was about to quit the neighbourhood, he would not
again see Lilian, not even enter the town of L----. Was I to ascribe
this relief from his presence to the promise of the Shadow; or was I
not rather right in battling firmly against any grotesque illusion, and
accepting his departure as a simple proof that my jealous fears had been
amongst my other chimeras, and that as he had really only visited
Lilian out of friendship to me, in my peril, so he might, with his
characteristic acuteness, have guessed my jealousy, and ceased his
visits from a kindly motive delicately concealed? And might not the same
motive now have dictated the words which were intended to assure me
that L---- contained no attractions to tempt him to return to it? Thus,
gradually soothed and cheered by the course to which my reflections led
me, I continued to muse for hours. At length, looking at my watch, I
was surprised to find it was the second hour after midnight. I was just
about to rise from my chair to undress, and secure some hours of sleep,
when the well-remembered cold wind passed through the room, stirring the
roots of my hair; and before me stood, against the wall, the Luminous
Shadow.

"Rise and follow me," said the voice, sounding much nearer than it had
ever done before.