at, in which
case, for all he knew, the vampyre might, by some more than mortal
means, discover what a hand he had had in the matter, and punish him
accordingly.

The moment he hid left the saddler's Mrs. Philpots, after using some
bitter reproaches to her husband for not at once sacrificing the boy
upon the spot for the disrespectful manner in which he had spoken of
her, hastily put on her bonnet and shawl, and the saddler, although it
was a full hour before the usual time, began putting up the shutters of
his shop.

"Why, my dear," he said to Mrs. Philpots, when she came down stairs
equipped for the streets, "why, my dear, where are you going?"

"And pray, sir, what are you shutting up the shop for at this time of
the evening!"

"Oh! why, the fact is, I thought I'd just go to the Rose and Crown, and
mention that the vampyre was so near at hand."

"Well, Mr. Philpots, and in that case there can be no harm in my calling
upon some of my acquaintance and mentioning it likewise."

"Why, I don't suppose there would be much harm; only remember, Mrs.
Philpots, remember if you please---"

"Remember what?"

"To tell everybody to keep it secret."

"Oh, of course I will; and mind you do it likewise."

"Most decidedly."

The shop was closed, Mr. Philpots ran off to the Rose and Crown, and
Mrs, Philpots, with as much expedition as she could, purposed making the
grand tour of all her female acquaintance in the town, just to tell
them, as a great secret, that the vampyre, Sir Francis Varney, as he
called himself, had taken refuge at the house that was to let down the
lane leading to Higgs's farm.

"But by no means," she said, "let it go no further, because it is a very
wrong thing to make any disturbance, and you will understand that it's
quite a secret."

She was listened to with breathless attention, as may well be supposed,
and it was a singular circumstance that at every house she left some
other lady put on her bonnet and shawl, and ran out to make the circle
of her acquaintance, with precisely the same story, and precisely the
same injunctions to secrecy.

And, as Mr. Philpots pursued an extremely similar course, we are not
surprised that in the short space of one hour the news should have
spread through all the town, and that there was scarcely a child old
enough to understand what was being talked about, who was ignorant of
the fact, that Sir Francis Varney was to be found at the empty house
down the lane.