There was a moment's silence.

"How much that woman must have suffered!" I said to myself with a pain
striking at my heart.

"I know not how my mother made that terrible discovery," added Odile,
"but she became aware of the mysterious attraction of the Black Pest and
their meetings in Hugh Lupus's tower; she knew it all--all! She never
suspected my father--ah no!--but she perished away by slow degrees under
this consuming influence! and I myself am dying."

I bowed my head into my hands and wept in silence.

"One night," she went on, "one night--I was only ten--and my mother, with
the remains of her superhuman energy, for she was near her end that
night, came to me when I lay asleep. It was in winter; a stony cold hand
caught me by the wrist. I looked up. Before me stood a tall woman; in one
hand she held a flaming torch, with the other she held me by the arm.
Her robe was sprinkled with snow. There was a convulsive movement in all
her limbs and her eyes were fired with a gloomy light through the long
locks of white hair which hung in disorder round her face. It was my
mother; and she said, 'Odile, my child, get up and dress! You must know
it all!' Then taking me to Hugh Lupus's tower she showed me the open
subterranean passage. 'Your father will come out that way,' she said,
pointing to the tower; 'he will come out with the she-wolf; don't be
frightened, he won't see you.' And presently my father, bearing his
funereal burden, came out with the old woman. My mother took me in her
arms and followed; she showed me the dismal scene on the Altenberg of
which you know. 'Look, my child,' she said; 'you must for I--am going to
die soon. You will have to keep that secret. You alone are to sit up