s over!--that is over!" he said. "He shall have the other
thousand pounds, perchance, sooner than he thinks. With all expedition I
will send it to him. And then on that subject I shall be at peace. I
shall have paid a large sum; but that which I purchased was to me
priceless. It was my life!--it was my life itself! That possession which
the world's wealth cannot restore! And shall I grudge these thousands,
which have found their way into this man's hands? No! 'Tis true, that
existence, for me, has lost some of its most resplendent charms. 'Tis
true, that I have no earthly affections, and that shunning companionship
with all, I am alike shunned by all; and yet, while the life-blood still
will circulate within my shrunken veins, I cling to vitality."

He passed into an inner room, and taking from a hook, on which it hung,
a long, dark-coloured cloak, he enveloped his tall, unearthly figure
within its folds.

Then, with his hat in his hand, he passed out of his house, and appeared
to be taking his way towards Bannerworth House.

Surely it must be guilt of no common die that could oppress a man so
destitute of human sympathies as Sir Francis Varney. The dreadful
suspicions that hovered round him with respect to what he was, appeared
to gather confirmation from every act of his existence.

Whether or not this man, to whom he felt bound to pay annually so large
a sum, was in the secret, and knew him to be something more than
earthly, we cannot at present declare; but it would seem from the tenor
of their conversation as if such were the fact.

Perchance he had saved him from the corruption of the tomb, by placing
out, on some sylvan spot, where the cold moonbeams fell, the apparently
lifeless form, and now claimed so large a reward for such a service, and
the necessary secrecy contingent upon it.

We say this may be so, and yet again some more natural and rational
explanation may unexpectedly present itself; and there may be yet a dark
page in Sir Francis Varney's life's volume, which will place him in a
light of superadded terrors to our readers.

Time, and the now rapidly accumulating incidents of our tale, will soon
tear aside the veil of mystery that now envelopes some of our _dramatis
personae_.

And let us hope that in the development of those incidents we shall be
enabled to rescue the beautiful Flora Bannerworth from the despairing
gloom that is around her. Let us hope and even anticipate that we shall
see he