gossamer in the other. 'Only
I will make sure that no other woman ever wears it,' he laughed,
slitting it up and down with his knife. When this was done he kissed me,
and then while my heart was tender and the warm tears stood in my eyes,
he drew out the pin from my hat, meeting my remonstrances with the
assurance that he hated to see my head covered, and that no hat was as
pretty as my own brown hair.

"As this was nonsense, and as the coach was beginning to stop, I shook
my head at him and put my hat on again, but he had dropped the pin, or
so he said, and I had to alight without it.

"When I had paid the driver and the coach had driven off, I had a chance
to look up at the house before which we had stopped. Its height and
imposing appearance daunted me in spite of the great expectations I had
formed, and I ran up the stoop after him in a condition of mingled awe
and wild delight that was the poorest preparation possible for what lay
before me in the dark interior we were entering.

"He was fumbling nervously in the keyhole with his key, and I heard a
whispered oath escape him. But presently the door fell back, and we
stepped in to what looked to me like a cavern of darkness.

"'Do not be frightened!' he admonished me. 'I will strike a light in a
moment.' And after carefully closing the street door behind us, he
stretched out his hand to take mine, or so I judge, for I heard him
whisper impatiently, 'Where are you?'

"I was on the threshold of the parlor, to which I had groped my way
while he was closing the front door, so I whispered back, 'Here!' but
found voice for nothing further, for at that instant I heard a sound
proceeding from the depths of darkness in front of me, and was so struck
with terror that I fell back against the staircase, just as he passed me
and entered the room from which that stealthy noise had issued.

"'Darling!' he whispered, 'darling!' and went stumbling on in the void
of darkness before me, till suddenly by some power I cannot explain I
seemed to see, faintly but distinctly, and as if with my mind's eye
rather than with my bodily one.

"I perceived the shadowy form of a woman standing in the space before
him, and beheld him suddenly grasp her with what he meant to be a loving
cry, but which to my ears at that moment sounded strangely ferocious,
and after holding her a moment suddenly release her, at which she
uttered one low, curdling moan and sank at his feet. At the same instant