Where was she, that dreadful woman?
Starting up in bed, I looked wildly round the room for the haunting phantom,--she was not a reality,--I must have had a terrible dream.
"'Yes!' said the doctor, answering the expression of my countenance, 'you have had a shocking nightmare.

Drink this, and you will awake refreshed.' "Yielding passively, I drank the colorless fluid he offered me, and sinking back on my pillow passed into a deep and tranquil sleep.

When I awoke, the silence and darkness of night brooded around me.

My mind now was clear as crystal, and every image appeared with startling distinctness.

I lay still and calm, revolving what course to pursue; and as I lay and revolved, doubts of the truth of her story grew stronger and stronger.