Did he come to
you? Go on. Well, well."

The first speaker became immediately a very important personage in the
room; and, when he saw that, he became at once a very important
personage in his own eyes likewise; and, before he would speak another
word, he filled a fresh pipe, and ordered another mug of ale.

"It's no use trying to hurry him," said one.

"No," he said, "it isn't. I'll tell you in good time what a dreadful
circumstance has made me sixty-three to-day, when I was only fifty-three
yesterday."

"Was it very dreadful?"

"Rather. You wouldn't have survived it at all."

"Indeed!"

"No. Now listen. I went to bed at a quarter after eleven, as usual. I
didn't notice anything particular in the room."

"Did you peep under the bed?"

"No, I didn't. Well, as I was a-saying, to bed I went, and I didn't
fasten the door; because, being a very sound sleeper, in case there was
a fire, I shouldn't hear a word of it if I did."

"No," said another. "I recollect once--"

"Be so good as allow me to finish what I know, before you begin to
recollect anything, if you please. As I was saying, I didn't lock the
door, but I went to bed. Somehow or another, I did not feel at all
comfortable, and I tossed about, first on one side, and then on the
other; but it was all in vain; I only got, every moment, more and more
fidgetty."

"And did you think of the vampyre?" said one of the listeners.

"I thought of nothing else till I heard my clock, which is on the
landing of the stairs above my bed-room, begin to strike twelve."

"Ah! I like to hear a clock sound in the night," said one; "it puts one
in mind of the rest of the world, and lets one know one isn't all
alone."

"Very good. The striking of the clock I should not at all have objected
to; but it was what followed that did the business."

"What, what?"

"Fair and softly; fair and softly. Just hand me a light, Mr. Sprigs, if
you please. I'll tell you all, gentlemen, in a moment or two."

With the most provoking deliberation, the speaker re-lit his pipe, which
had gone out while he was talking, and then, after a few whiffs, to
assure himself that its contents had thoroughly ignited, he resumed,--

"No sooner had the last sound of it died away, than I heard something on
the stairs."

"Yes, yes."

"It was as if some man had given his foot a hard blow against one of the
stairs; and he would have needed to have had a heavy boot on to do it. I
started up in bed and