ng on the morning of the Feast of the Invention of the Cross, I
felt an icy hand on my forehead, and distinctly heard your aunt's voice
say 'Get up, Anne! Get up! it's time for you to dress me; the
bridegroom's coming.' I jumped out of bed, terribly frightened, and
hurried on my clothes. Everything was silent, and there was only a cold
air moving through the room. Mimi kept on whimpering and whining, and
even Hans--contrarily to cat-nature--groaned, and pressed himself,
frightened, into corners. Then presses and cupboards seemed to be being
opened, and there was the sound of the rustling of a silk dress, and a
voice singing a morning hymn. I heard all this distinctly, master, but
I saw nothing. Terror nearly overmastered me, but I knelt down in a
corner and prayed fervently. Then a small table seemed to be being
moved, and glasses and teacups set out on it; footsteps went up and
down the room. I couldn't stir, and--what more shall I say?--I heard
the mistress going about, just as she always had done on that unlucky
day, sobbing and sighing; till the clock struck ten, when I distinctly
heard the words 'Go to your bed, Anne; it's all over now.' Then I fell
down insensible, and the people found me lying there in the morning
when they broke open the door, for they thought something must have
happened to me as they had seen or heard nothing of me. But I've never
told anybody about it except you."

"'From my own experience, I couldn't doubt that everything had happened
as the old woman described it, and I was glad I hadn't arrived sooner,
so as to have had to go through it myself. It was just at this very
time, when the ghost seemed to be laid, and I was living in the
sweetest of hopes and anticipations, that I was obliged to leave
Berlin; and that was the cause of my annoyance, which you noticed
yourselves. But before six months were over I had taken my retirement,
and then I came back as quickly as possible. I very soon managed to
make the acquaintance of the family over the way, and I found the young
lady, who had seemed so fascinating at first sight, to be even more
charming and attractive in every respect on closer acquaintance, so
that I felt that the happiness of my life was wholly bound up in her. I
don't know quite why, but I always thought she was in love with someone
else; and this opinion was confirmed once when the conversation
happened to turn on a certain young gentleman, at the mention of whom
tears came to he