iring,
therefore, with a sigh of vexation, she sought her bedroom, and, after
the most scrupulous attention to her toilet, put out the lights and
got into bed. It was just one when she fell asleep, and three when she
awoke with a violent start. Why she started puzzled her. She did not
recollect experiencing any very dreadful dream, in fact no dream at
all, and there seemed nothing in the hush--the apparently unbroken
hush--that could in any way account for her action. Why, then, had she
started? She lay still and wondered. Surely everything was just as it
was when she went to sleep! And yet! When she ventured on a diagnosis,
there was something different, something new; she did not think it was
actually in the atmosphere, nor in the silence; she did not know where
it was until she opened her eyes--and then she _knew_. Bending over
her, within a few inches of her face, was another face, the ghastly
caricature of a human face. It was on a larger scale than that of any
mortal Lady Adela had ever seen; it was long in proportion to its
width--indeed, she could not make out where the cranium terminated at
the back, as the hinder portion of it was lost in a mist. The
forehead, which was very receding, was partly covered with a mass of
lank, black hair, that fell straight down into space; there were no
neck nor shoulders, at least none had materialised; the skin was
leaden-hued, and the emaciation so extreme that the raw cheek-bones
had burst through in places; the size of the eye sockets which
appeared monstrous, was emphasised by the fact that the eyes were
considerably sunken; the lips were curled downwards and tightly shut,
and the whole expression of the withered mouth, as indeed that of the
entire face, was one of bestial, diabolical malignity. Lady Adela's
heart momentarily stopped, her blood ran cold, she was petrified; and
as she stared helplessly at the dark eyes pressed close to hers, she
saw them suddenly suffuse with fiendish glee. The most frightful
change then took place: the upper lip writhed away from a few greenish
yellow stumps; the lower jaw fell with a metallic click, leaving the
mouth widely open, and disclosing to Lady Adela's shocked vision a
black and bloated tongue; the eyeballs rolled up and entirely
disappeared, whilst their places were immediately filled with the
foulest and most loathsome indications of advanced decay. A strong,
vibratory movement suddenly made all the bones in the head rattle and