me
from my reverie, and I saw that I was standing beside the old adobe,
whither I had wandered without knowing. Close at my feet lay a bit of
white cloth which attracted my attention, and I picked it up. It was a
handkerchief of fine cambric, in one corner of which was embroidered a
name, which I could easily read in the moonlight, "Ysidria."

I read the name aloud, and the great wall with its ivy glistening silver
in the light echoed back the name. At the time I was not surprised to
hear the the three syllables so fully pronounced by the echo. I enjoyed
the sound of the name, and called it again and again. "Ysidria!
Ysidria!" each time called back the ruined wall, and at last I had to
laugh as I thought of the ludicrous appearance I presented, calling
aloud a name and like a child being pleased with the voice of the unseen
spirit, but as I laughed, that too, reverberated, but the sound seemed
changed, and it made me involuntarily shudder as I remembered the scene
of that very morning, when my laugh had produced the same strange
feeling, half of awe and half of anger. I looked around as if I expected
to find some one at my side. I started at every sound, and the long,
creeping shadows made me tremble. I was certainly strong, and had often
shown myself courageous in time of danger, but the mysterious awe which
fell upon me here completely unnerved me, and a cold perspiration
started, when from the wall I heard a whisper, distinctly audible, which
pronounced the words, "Ysidria hath beautiful eyes!"

I could not move, it seemed to me as if my heart ceased beating; I
listened and strained my ears in agonizing suspense, but the voice did
not come again, and the moon dropping suddenly behind the fig trees,
cast the whole place into profound darkness.

I felt free again, and pressing the handkerchief to my lips, imprinted a
kiss upon it and then at the same moment called myself a fool for so
suddenly becoming infatuated with the stranger in whom I had not the
slightest reason for taking more than a passing interest at most, no
more than common politeness required.

Again I laughed aloud and again the same fearful, hollow echo came back
to me from the ruined wall. I could stand it no longer, and turning, ran
from the grove, over the brow of the hill to the road, fearing every
moment lest the strange spell, from which I had just recovered, should
seize me again.

As I ascended the second hill, I saw, as I looked behind me,