warning and of anguish, that murmured "Hold!" I knew the voice; it was
Lilian's. I paused; I turned towards the quarter from which the voice had
come, and in the space afar I saw the features, the form of Lilian. Her
arms were stretched towards me in supplication, her countenance was deadly
pale, and anxious with unutterable distress. The whole image seemed in
unison with the voice,--the look, the attitude, the gesture of one who
sees another in deadly peril, and cries, "Beware!"

This apparition vanished in a moment; but that moment sufficed to free my
mind from the constraint which had before enslaved it. I dashed the wand
to the ground, sprang from the circle, rushed from the place. How I got
into my own room I can remember not,--I know not; I have a vague
reminiscence of some intervening wandering, of giant trees, of shroud-like
moonlight, of the Shining Shadow and its angry aspect, of the blind walls
and the iron door of the House of the Dead, of spectral images,--a
confused and dreary phantasmagoria. But all I can recall with
distinctness is the sight of my own hueless face in the mirror in my own
still room, by the light of the white moon through the window; and,
sinking down, I said to myself, "This, at least, is an hallucination or a
dream!"




CHAPTER LII.

A heavy sleep came over me at daybreak, but I did not undress nor go to
bed. The sun was high in the heavens when, on waking, I saw the servant
who had attended me bustling about the room.