father called me by names of which
I hardly know the meaning, but my heart told me they were such as shame
any modest woman; and from that day he turned quite against me;--nay,
sir, not many weeks after that, he came in with a riding-whip in his
hand; and, accusing me harshly of evil doings, of which I knew no more
than you, sir, he was about to strike me, and I, all in bewildering
tears, was ready to take his stripes as great kindness compared to his
harder words, when suddenly he stopped his arm mid-way, gasped and
staggered, crying out, 'The curse--the curse!' I looked up in terror.
In the great mirror opposite I saw myself, and, right behind, another
wicked, fearful self, so like me that my soul seemed to quiver within
me, as though not knowing to which similitude of body it belonged. My
father saw my double at the same moment, either in its dreadful
reality, whatever that might be, or in the scarcely less terrible
reflection in the mirror; but what came of it at that moment I cannot
say, for I suddenly swooned away; and when I came to myself I was lying
in my bed, and my faithful Clarke sitting by me. I was in my bed for
days; and even while I lay there my double was seen by all, flitting
about the house and gardens, always about some mischievous or
detestable work. What wonder that every one shrank from me in
dread--that my father drove me forth at length, when the disgrace of
which I was the cause was past his patience to bear. Mistress Clarke
came with me; and here we try to live such a life of piety and prayer
as may in time set me free from the curse.'

All the time she had been speaking, I had been weighing her story in my
mind. I had hitherto put cases of witchcraft on one side, as mere
superstitions; and my uncle and I had had many an argument, he
supporting himself by the opinion of his good friend Sir Matthew Hale.
Yet this sounded like the tale of one bewitched; or was it merely the
effect of a life of extreme seclusion telling on the nerves of a
sensitive girl? My scepticism inclined me to the latter belief, and
when she paused I said:

'I fancy that some physician could have disabused your father of his
belief in visions----'

Just at that instant, standing as I was opposite to her in the full and
perfect morning light, I saw behind her another figure--a ghastly
resemblance, complete in likeness, so far as form and feature and
minutest touch of dress could go, but with a loathsome demon soul
lookin