the sepulchre itself. He knew no more; he became
unconscious. It was the excess of the poor woman's alarm, on hearing
this strange tale, that made her resolve to send for me instead of the
parish apothecary. She fancied so astounding a cause for her husband's
seizure could only be properly dealt with by some medical man reputed
to have more than ordinary learning; and the steward himself objected to
the apothecary in the immediate neighbourhood, as more likely to annoy
him by gossip than a physician from a comparative distance.

I took care not to lose the confidence of the good wife by parading
too quickly my disbelief in the phantom her husband declared that he ad
seen; but as the story itself seemed at once to decide the nature of the
fit to be epileptic, I began to tell her of similar delusions which, in
my experience, had occurred to those subjected to epilepsy, and
finally soothed her into the conviction that the apparition was clearly
reducible to natural causes. Afterwards, I led her on to talk about
Sir Philip Derval, less from any curiosity I felt about the absent
proprietor than from a desire to re-familiarize her own mind to his
image as a living man. The steward had been in the service of Sir
Philip's father, and had known Sir Philip himself from a child. He was
warmly attached to his master, whom the old woman described as a man of
rare benevolence and great eccentricity, which last she imputed to his
studious habits. He had succeeded to the title and estates as a minor.
For the first few years after attaining his majority, he had mixed much
in the world. When at Derval Court his house had been filled with gay
companions, and was the scene of lavish hospitality; but the estate
was not in proportion to the grandeur of the mansion, still less to the
expenditure of the owner. He had become greatly embarrassed; and some
love disappointment (so it was rumoured) occurring simultaneously with
his pecuniary difficulties, he had suddenly changed his way of life,
shut himself up from his old friends, lived in seclusion, taking to
books and scientific pursuits, and as the old woman said vaguely and
expressively, "to odd ways." He had gradually by an economy that,
towards himself, was penurious, but which did not preclude much
judicious generosity to others, cleared off his debts; and, once more
rich, he had suddenly quitted the country, and taken to a life of
travel. He was now about forty-eight years old, and had be