our return; otherwise it appeared as if she was conscious of her
influence for good over the passionate and troubled woman kneeling
before her, and would not willingly avert her grave and loving eyes
from that wrinkled and careworn countenance.

Suddenly--in the twinkling of an eye--the creature appeared, there,
behind Lucy; fearfully the same as to outward semblance, but kneeling
exactly as Bridget knelt, and clasping her hands in jesting mimicry
as Bridget clasped hers in her ecstasy that was deepening into a
prayer. Mistress Clarke cried out--Bridget arose slowly, her gaze
fixed on the creature beyond: drawing her breath with a hissing
sound, never moving her terrible eyes, that were steady as stone, she
made a dart at the phantom, and caught, as I had done, a mere handful
of empty air. We saw no more of the creature--it vanished as
suddenly as it came, but Bridget looked slowly on, as if watching
some receding form. Lucy sat still, white, trembling, drooping--I
think she would have swooned if I had not been there to uphold her.
While I was attending to her, Bridget passed us, without a word to
any one, and, entering her cottage, she barred herself in, and left
us without.

All our endeavours were now directed to get Lucy back to the house
where she had tarried the night before. Mistress Clarke told me
that, not hearing from me (some letter must have miscarried), she had
grown impatient and despairing, and had urged Lucy to the enterprise
of coming to seek her grandmother; not telling her, indeed, of the
dread reputation she possessed, or how we suspected her of having so
fearfully blighted that innocent girl; but, at the same time, hoping
much from the mysterious stirring of blood, which Mistress Clarke
trusted in for the removal of the curse. They had come, by a