ashed the
wand to the ground, sprang from the circle, rushed from the place. How
I got into my own room I can remember not,--I know not; I have a
vague reminiscence of some intervening wandering, of giant trees, of
shroud-like moonlight, of the Shining Shadow and its angry aspect, of
the blind walls and the iron door of the House of the Dead, of spectral
images,--a confused and dreary phantasmagoria. But all I can recall with
distinctness is the sight of my own hueless face in the mirror in my
own still room, by the light of the white moon through the window; and,
sinking down, I said to myself, "This, at least, is an hallucination or
a dream!"

CHAPTER LII.

A heavy sleep came over me at daybreak, but I did not undress nor go to
bed. The sun was high in the heavens when, on waking, I saw the servant
who had attended me bustling about the room.

"I beg your pardon, sir, I am afraid I disturbed you; but I have been
three times to see if you were not coming down, and I found you so
soundly asleep I did not like to wake you. Mr. Strahan has finished
breakfast, and gone out riding; Mr. Margrave has left,--left before six
o'clock."

"Ah, he said he was going early."

"Yes, sir; and he seemed so cross when he went. I could never have
supposed so pleasant a gentleman could put himself into such a passion!"

"What was the matter?"

"Why, his walking-stick could not be found; it was not in the hall. He
said he had left it in the study; we could not find it there. At last he
found it himself in the old summerhouse, and said--I beg pardon--he said
he was sure you had taken it there: that some one, at all events, had
been meddling with it. However, I am very glad it was found, since he
seems to set such store on it."

"Did Mr. Margrave go himself into the summer-house to look for it?"

"Yes, sir; no one else would have thought of such a place; no one likes
to go there, even in the daytime."

"Why?"

"Why, sir, they say it is haunted since poor Sir Philip's death; and,
indeed, there are strange noises in every part of the house. I am
afraid you had a bad night, sir," continued the servant, with evident
curiosity, glancing towards the bed, which I had not pressed, and
towards the evening-dress which, while he spoke, I was rapidly changing
for that which I habitually wore in the morning. "I hope you did not
feel yourself ill?"

"No! but it seems I fell asleep in my chair."

"Did you hear, sir, how the dogs howl