"I told you so," said the old lady, with the glass in her hand. "It is
his poor young countess who was frightened--"

"It is not," I said. "There is neither ghost of earl nor ghost of
countess in that room; there is no ghost there at all, but worse, far
worse, something impalpable--"

"Well?" they said.

"The worst of all the things that haunt poor mortal men," said I; "and
that is, in all its nakedness--'Fear!' Fear that will not have light
nor sound, that will not bear with reason, that deafens and darkens and
overwhelms. It followed me through the corridor, it fought against me in
the room--"

I stopped abruptly. There was an interval of silence. My hand went up to
my bandages. "The candles went out one after another, and I fled--"

Then the man with the shade lifted his face sideways to see me and
spoke.

"That is it," said he. "I knew that was it. A Power of Darkness. To put
such a curse upon a home! It lurks there always. You can feel it even
in the daytime, even of a bright summer's day, in the hangings, in the
curtains, keeping behind you however you face about. In the dusk it
creeps in the corridor and follows you, so that you dare not turn. It is
even as you say. Fear itself is in that room. Black Fear.... And there
it will be... so long as this house of sin endures."

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