n tapped
gently. I heard a sudden rustle within, as if someone hurried across the
floor away from the door, and then Margot's voice cried sharply:

"Who's that? Who is there?" "Margot, it is I. I wish to speak to you--to
say good-night."

"Good-night," she said. "But let me in for a moment." There was a
silence--it seemed to me a long one; then she answered:

"Not now, dear; I--I am so tired." "Open the door for a moment." "I
am very tired. Good-night." The cold, level tone of her voice--for the
anxiety had left it after that first sudden cry--roused me to a sudden
fury of action. I seized the handle of the door and pressed with all my
strength. Physically I am a very powerful man--my anger and despair
gave me a giant's might. I burst the lock, and sprang into the room. My
impulse was to seize Margot in my arms and crush her to death, it might
be, in an embrace she could not struggle against. The blood coursed like
molten fire through my veins. The lust of love, the lust of murder even,
perhaps, was upon me. I sprang impetuously into the room.

No candles were alight in it. The blinds were up, and the chill
moonbeams filtered through the small lattice panes. By the farthest
window, in the yellowish radiance, was huddled a white thing.

A sudden cold took hold upon me. All the warmth in me froze up.

I stopped where I was and held my breath.

That white thing, seen thus uncertainly, had no semblance to humanity.
It was animal wholly. I could have believed for the moment that a white
cat crouched from me there by the curtain, waiting to spring.

What a strange illusion that was! I tried to laugh at it afterwards, but
at the moment horror stole through me--horror, and almost awe.

All desire of violence left me. Heat was dead; I felt cold as stone. I
could not even speak a word.

Suddenly the white thing moved. The curtain was drawn sharply; the
moonlight was blotted out; the room was plunged in darkness--a darkness
in which that thing could see!

I turned and stole out of the room. I could have fled, driven by the
nameless fear that was upon me.

Only when the morning dawned did the man in me awake, and I cursed
myself for my cowardice.

*****

The following evening we were asked to dine out with some neighbours,
who lived a few miles off in a wonderful old Norman castle near the
sea. During the day neither of us had made the slightest allusion to
the incidents of the previous night. We both felt it a rel