st her solely to the care of her mother and her own courage at the hall, she fel

hat some evil was about to occur, and more than on

hey had n

hen she came to consider how poor a guard she was over her beautiful child, and how much terror mi

s," thought Flora, "and two

source, inasmuch as it was one which showed powerfully how much her mind was dwelling on the particular

nhabitants, would be from nine o'clock until eleven, and those were not the two h

may not be able to come earlier. It may not have the power, until that ti

ers, and she and her mother sat in a small room that was used as a brea

on would admit of some time before the departure of the brothers and Mr. Marchdale on that melancholy expedi

all sorts of imaginative terrors, they were perhaps gathering fresh evidence, as, indeed, they were, of the dreadful reality of the appearance whic

to eleven, and when she heard ten o'clock sound from a clock which stood in the

other, "you look more

I, mo

u are we

I could

o, and all the fear of what made you so unwel

hope t

enry says, to explain all that has happened, in some way consiste

ly, to tell me so, and each time that I hear such words from his lips, I will contrive to

r's arm, and in a low, anxious ton

d pale, as she said,-"

ught three or four times that I heard a slight noise wit

once or twice she passed her hand across her brow, and a

ost all they said consisted in anxious wishes f

s. Bannerworth. "Shall I ring for the servants, and let them remain in the

sh-hush,

do you

I heard a f

nothing

ed so often. I have now, at least, six times heard

ink; your imagination is activ

s, an

e, it dece

o Heaven

g of some of the servants, for she thought that their presence might have the effect of giving a diffe

yet, not yet. Perh

d not rung the bell, for, before, another word could be spoken, there came too perceptibly upon their

's lips, as she exclaimed,

, God! It ha

ak at all; she could only sit like one paralysed, and un

such a sound outside the window would have scarcely afforded food for comment at all, or, if it had, it would have

ul importance, and these things which before would have passed completely unheeded,

ased, Flora spoke in a low,

you heard

hich on the inside appeared to fasten the shutters strongly, fell as if by some invisible agency, an

r rocking to and fro for a moment, she fell off her chair,

f recovering; and there she sat, with her eyes fixed upon the window, looking more like some exquisitely-chiselled statue of despair than a being

ge knocking or scratching ag

e to Flora that some confusion was going on at another part of th

utters of that window a long time before she saw them shak

of producing madness in her brain, and then, a

t plainly discern, in consequence of the lights she had in the room. A few moments, howeve

what the figure was. There was the tall, gaunt form-there was the faded ancient apparel-the lustrous me

endeavoured to utter some words which it could not make articulate to human ears. The pistols lay before Flora.

hat was incidental to the spot prevented her from seeing if the figure walked or ran away. She thought she he

rection the vampyre had taken. Then casting the weapon away, she rose, and made a frantic rush from the room. She opened the door, and was dashin

got there, and was about to make her his prey, now overcame her compl