e. He
started up with a stifled shout, and then, looking kindly at me, said,
"Ay, you have done quite right--that you have, cousin, to wake me. I
have had a very ugly dream, and it's all solely owing to this room and
that hall, for they made me think of past times and many wonderful
things that have happened here. But now let us turn to and have a
good sound sleep." Therewith the old gentleman rolled himself in the
bed-covering and appeared to fall asleep at once. But when I had
extinguished the candles and likewise crept into bed, I heard him
praying in a low tone to himself.

Next morning we began work in earnest; the land-steward brought his
account-books, and various other people came, some to get a dispute
settled, some to get arrangements made about other matters. At noon my
uncle took me with him to the wing where the two old Baronesses lived,
that we might pay our respects to them with all due form. Francis
having announced us, we had to wait some time before a little old dame,
bent with the weight of her sixty years, and attired in gay-coloured
silks, who styled herself the noble ladies' lady-in-waiting, appeared
and led us into the sanctuary. There we were received with comical
ceremony by the old ladies, whose curious style of dress had gone out
of fashion years and years before. I especially was an object of
astonishment to them when my uncle, with considerable humour,
introduced me as a young lawyer who had come to assist him in his
business. Their countenances plainly indicated their belief that, owing
to my youth, the welfare of the tenants of R--sitten was placed in
jeopardy. Although there was a good deal that was truly ridiculous
during the whole of this interview with the old ladies, I was
nevertheless still shivering from the terror of the preceding night; I
felt as if I had come in contact with an unknown power, or rather as if
I had grazed against the outer edge of a circle, one step across which
would be enough to plunge me irretrievably into destruction, as though
it were only by the exertion of all the power of my will that I should
be able to guard myself against _that_ awful dread which never slackens
its hold upon you until it ends in incurable insanity. Hence it was
that the old Baronesses, with their remarkable towering head-dresses,
and their peculiar stuff gowns, tricked off with gay flowers and
ribbons, instead of striking me as merely ridiculous, had an appearance
that was both ghostly