His scarlet sheathings of garmentry lay upon a black oaken stool, trailing across the floor lank and hideous, one of the cuffs which had been but recently dyed a darker hue making a wet sop upon the boards.
All this I had seen many a time before.

But that which made me tremble from head to foot with more and worse than cold, was the little white figure that danced about his bed--for all the world like a crisped leaf in late autumn which whirls and turns, skipping this way and spinning that in the wanton breezes.

It was the Little Playmate.

But I could not form a word wherewith to call her.

My tongue seemed dried to the roots.
She had taken the red eye-mask which came across my father's face when he did his greater duties and tied it about her head.