she set upon him with a large knife,
and cut him about so frightfully that he died in a few hours' time."

Scarcely had the doctor said these words, when the Countess fell back
in her chair fainting, and was with much difficulty recovered from the
succession of hysterical attacks which supervened. The doctor then saw
that he had acted very thoughtlessly in alluding to such a frightful
occurrence in the presence of a lady whose nervous system was in such a
delicate condition.

However, this crisis seemed to have a beneficial effect upon her, for
she became calmer; although, soon afterwards there came upon her a very
remarkable condition of rigidity, as of benumbedness. There was a
darksome fire in her eyes, and her deathlike pallor increased to such
an extent, that the Count was driven into new and most tormenting
doubts as to her condition. The most inexplicable thing was that she
never took the smallest morsel of anything to eat, evincing the utmost
repugnance at the sight of all food, particularly meat. This repugnance
was so invincible that she was constantly obliged to get up and leave
the table, with the most marked indications of loathing. The doctor's
skill was in vain, and the Count's most urgent and affectionate
entreaties were powerless to induce her to take even a single drop of
medicine of any kind. And, inasmuch as weeks, nay, months, had passed
without her having taken so much as a morsel of food, and it had become
an unfathomable mystery how she managed to keep alive, the doctor came
to the conclusion that there was something in the case which lay beyond
the domain of ordinary human science. He made some pretext for leaving
the Castle, but the Count saw clearly enough that this doctor, whose
skilfulness was well approved, and who had a high reputation to
maintain, felt that the Countess's condition was too unintelligible,
and, in fact, too strangely mysterious, for him to stay on there,
witness of an illness impossible to be understood--as to which he felt
he had no power to render assistance.

It may be readily imagined into what a state of mind all this put the
Count. But there was more to come. Just at this juncture an old,
privileged servant took an opportunity, when he found the Count alone,
of telling him that the Countess went out every night, and did not come
home till daybreak.

The Count's blood ran cold. It struck him, as a matter which he had not
quite realized before, that, for a short ti