nhabitants of the house, and corresponded with
that of the hand seen by Mrs. Prosser and by the cook.

Whoever or whatever the owner of that hand might be, they all felt this
subtle demonstration to mean that it was declared he was no longer out
of doors, but had established himself in the house.

And now Mrs. Prosser began to be troubled with strange and horrible
dreams, some of which as set out in detail, in Aunt Rebecca's long
letter, are really very appalling nightmares. But one night, as Mr.
Prosser closed his bed-chamber-door, he was struck somewhat by the utter
silence of the room, there being no sound of breathing, which seemed
unaccountable to him, as he knew his wife was in bed, and his ears were
particularly sharp.

There was a candle burning on a small table at the foot of the bed,
beside the one he held in one hand, a heavy ledger, connected with his
father-in-law's business being under his arm. He drew the curtain at the
side of the bed, and saw Mrs. Prosser lying, as for a few seconds he
mortally feared, dead, her face being motionless, white, and covered
with a cold dew; and on the pillow, close beside her head, and just
within the curtains, was, as he first thought, a toad--but really the
same fattish hand, the wrist resting on the pillow, and the fingers
extended towards her temple.

Mr. Prosser, with a horrified jerk, pitched the ledger right at the
curtains, behind which the owner of the hand might be supposed to stand.
The hand was instantaneously and smoothly snatched away, the curtains
made a great wave, and Mr. Prosser got round the bed in time to see the
closet-door, which was at the other side, pulled to by the same white,
puffy hand, as he believed.

He drew the door open with a fling, and stared in: but the closet was
empty, except for the clothes hanging from the pegs on the wall, and the
dressing-table and looking-glass facing the windows. He shut it sharply,
and locked it, and felt for a minute, he says, 'as if he were like to
lose his wits;' then, ringing at the bell, he brought the servants, and
with much ado they recovered Mrs. Prosser from a sort of 'trance,' in
which, he says, from her looks, she seemed to have suffered 'the pains
of death:' and Aunt Rebecca adds, 'from what she told me of her visions,
with her own lips, he might have added, "and of hell also."'

But the occurrence which seems to have determined the crisis was the
strange sickness of their eldest child, a little