Most surely and certainly I heard, as it seemed, a stealthy foot on that floor: a sort of gliding out from the direction of the black recess haunted by the malefactor cloaks.

I turned: my light was dim; the room was long--but as I live! I saw in the middle of that ghostly chamber a figure all black and white; the skirts straight, narrow, black; the head bandaged, veiled, white.
Say what you will, reader--tell me I was nervous or mad; affirm that I was unsettled by the excitement of that letter; declare that I dreamed; this I vow--I saw there--in that room--on that night--an image like--a NUN.
I cried out; I sickened.

Had the shape approached me I might have swooned.

It receded: I made for the door.

How I descended all the stairs I know not.