ord
Glenfallen to leave the room, until, at all hazards, I had unburdened
my mind.

"My Lord," said I, after a long silence, summoning up all my firmness,
"my lord, I wish to say a few words to you upon a matter of very great
importance, of very deep concernment to you and to me." I fixed my
eyes upon him to discern, if possible, whether the announcement
caused him any uneasiness, but no symptom of any such feeling was
perceptible.

"Well, my dear," said he, "this is, no doubt, a very grave preface,
and portends, I have no doubt, something extraordinary--pray let us
have it without more ado."

He took a chair, and seated himself nearly opposite to me.

"My lord," said I, "I have seen the person who alarmed me so much a
short time since, the blind lady, again, upon last night"; his face,
upon which my eyes were fixed, turned pale, he hesitated for a moment,
and then said--

"And did you, pray madam, so totally forget or spurn my express
command, as to enter that portion of the house from which your
promise, I might say, your oath, excluded you--answer me that?" he
added, fiercely.

"My lord," said I, "I have neither forgotten your _commands_, since
such they were, nor disobeyed them. I was, last night, wakened from my
sleep, as I lay in my own chamber, and accosted by the person whom I
have mentioned--how she found access to the room I cannot pretend to
say."

"Ha! this must be looked to," said he, half reflectively; "and pray,"
added he, quickly, while in turn he fixed his eyes upon me, "what did
this person say, since some comment upon her communication forms, no
doubt, the sequel to your preface."

"Your lordship is not mistaken," said I, "her statement was so
extraordinary that I could not think of withholding it from you; she
told me, my lord, that you had a wife living at the time you married
me, and that she was that wife."

Lord Glenfallen became ashy pale, almost livid; he made two or three
efforts to clear his voice to speak, but in vain, and turning suddenly
from me, he walked to the window; the horror and dismay, which, in
the olden time, overwhelmed the woman of Endor, when her spells
unexpectedly conjured the dead into her presence, were but types
of what I felt, when thus presented with what appeared to be almost
unequivocal evidence of the guilt, whose existence I had before so
strongly doubted. There was a silence of some moments, during which it
were hard to conjecture whether I or my comp