or heard Adelgunda's story he laughed aloud, and said nothing could
be easier than to cure a condition of the kind, which resulted solely
from an over-excited imagination. The idea of the appearing of the
spectre was so intimately associated with the striking of nine o'clock,
that the mind could not dissociate them. So that all that was necessary
was to effect this separation by external means; as to which there was
no difficulty, as it was only necessary to deceive the patient as to
the time, and let nine o'clock pass without her being aware of it. If
the apparition did not then appear, she would be convinced, herself,
that it was an illusion; and measures to give tone to the general
system would be all that would then be necessary to complete the
cure. This unfortunate advice was taken. One night all the clocks at
the castle were put back an hour--the hollow, booming tower clock
included--so that, when Adelgunda awoke in the morning, she found
herself an hour wrong in her time. When evening came, the family were
assembled, as usual, in a cheerful corner room; no stranger was
present, and the mother constrained herself to talk about all sorts of
cheerful subjects. The colonel began (as was his habit, when in
specially good humour) to carry on an encounter of wit with the old
French lady, in which Augusta, the elder of the daughters, aided and
abetted him. Everybody was laughing, and more full of enjoyment than
ever. The clock on the wall struck eight (so that it was really nine
o'clock) and Adelgunda fell back in her chair, pale as death; her work
dropped from her hands; she rose, with a face of horror, stared before
her into the empty part of the room, and murmured, in a hollow voice--

"'"What! an hour earlier! Don't you see it? Don't you see it? Right
before me!"

"'Every one rose up in alarm. But as none of them saw the smallest
vestige of anything, the colonel cried--

"'"Calm yourself, Adelgunda, there is nothing there! It is a vision of
your brain, a deception of your fancy. We see nothing, nothing
whatever; and if there really were a figure close to you we should see
it as well as you! Calm yourself."

"'"Oh God!" cried Adelgunda, "they think I am out of my mind. See! it
is stretching out its long arm, it is making signs to me!"

"'And, as though she were acting under the influence of another,
without exercise of her own will, with eyes fixed and staring, she put
her hand back behind her, took up a plate w