d in mournful assent.

[Illustration]

"Is it not very, very dreadful?"

"Hush--hush! Calm yourself, dearest, calm yourself. Recollect that all
we have to go upon in this matter is a resemblance, which, after all,
may be accidental. But leave it all to me, and be assured that now I
have some clue to this affair, I will not lose sight of it, or of Sir
Francis Varney."

So saying, Charles surrendered Flora to the care of her mother, and then
was hastening back to the summer-house, when he met the whole party
coming towards the Hall, for the rain was each moment increasing in
intensity.

"We are returning," remarked Sir Francis Varney, with a half bow and a
smile, to Charles.

"Allow me," said Henry, "to introduce you, Mr. Holland, to our
neighbour, Sir Francis Varney."

Charles felt himself compelled to behave with courtesy, although his
mind was so full of conflicting feelings as regarded Varney; but there
was no avoiding, without such brutal rudeness as was inconsistent with
all his pursuits and habits, replying in something like the same strain
to the extreme courtly politeness of the supposed vampyre.

"I will watch him closely," thought Charles. "I can do no more than
watch him closely."

Sir Francis Varney seemed to be a man of the most general and discursive
information. He talked fluently and pleasantly upon all sorts of topics,
and notwithstanding he could not but have heard what Flora had said of
him, he asked no questions whatever upon that subject.

This silence as regarded a matter which would at once have induced some
sort of inquiry from any other man, Charles felt told much against him,
and he trembled to believe for a moment that, after all, it really might
be true.

"Is he a vampyre?" he asked himself. "Are there vampyres, and is this
man of fashion--this courtly, talented, educated gentleman one?" It was
a perfectly hideous question.

"You are charmingly situated here," remarked Varney, as, after ascending
the few steps that led to the hall door, he turned and looked at the
view from that slight altitude.

"The place has been much esteemed," said Henry, "for its picturesque
beauties of scenery."

"And well it may be. I trust, Mr. Holland, the young lady is much
better?"

"She is, sir," said Charles.

"I was not honoured by an introduction."

"It was my fault," said Henry, who spoke to his extraordinary guest with
an air of forced hilarity. "It was my fault for not introducing you