"I was thinking of the spiriting away of human beings rather than
pictures. In particular I was thinking of the case of my aunt, Crispina
Umberleigh."

"I remember hearing something of the affair," said the Journalist, "but I
was away from England at the time. I never quite knew what was supposed
to have happened."

"You may hear what really happened if you will respect it as a
confidence," said the Wine Merchant. "In the first place I may say that
the disappearance of Mrs. Umberleigh was not regarded by the family
entirely as a bereavement. My uncle, Edward Umberleigh, was not by any
means a weak-kneed individual, in fact in the world of politics he had to
be reckoned with more or less as a strong man, but he was unmistakably
dominated by Crispina; indeed I never met any human being who was not
frozen into subjection when brought into prolonged contact with her. Some
people are born to command; Crispina Mrs. Umberleigh was born to
legislate, codify, administrate, censor, license, ban, execute, and sit
in judgement generally. If she was not born with that destiny she
adopted it at an early age. From the kitchen regions upwards every one
in the household came under her despotic sway and stayed there with the
submissiveness of molluscs involved in a glacial epoch. As a nephew on a
footing of only occasional visits she affected me merely as an epidemic,
disagreeable while it lasted, but without any permanent effect; but her
own sons and daughters stood in mortal awe of her; their studies,
friendships, diet, amusements, religious observances, and way of doing
their hair were all regulated and ordained according to the august lady's
will and pleasure. This will help you to understand the sensation of
stupefaction which was caused in the family when she unobtrusively and
inexplicably vanished. It was as though St. Paul's Cathedral or the