A wayfarer, whom they met at the entrance of the narrow, dark street,
turned back, and on passing the ladies, scrutinised them closely. Jeanne
pretended to be afraid of the man; she stopped, and calling Carlino,
proposed to return home. Her voice really sounded different, but Carlino
could not believe she was afraid. Afraid of what? Did she not see there
before them only a few steps away, the lights of the Grande Place?
Moreover he knew the man, and was going to put him into his book. He was
the brother of the swan-necked Edith, a spirit of darkness, condemned
to wander at night in the streets of Bruges, as a penance for having
attempted to seduce St. Gunhild, sister of King Harold. Each time that
Carlino had ventured at night into the more lonely parts of Bruges he
had seen this sinister figure, wandering, as it seemed, aimlessly.

"That is a nice way to reassure people," said Noemi.

Carlino shrugged his shoulders, and declared the meeting to have been
most fortunate, since it had suggested the name of Gunhild for his
heroine, Noemi being that of a mother-in-law.

In the black shadow of the enormous Halles, towering on the right of the
street, the sinister-looking man, who had retraced his steps, almost
brushed Jeanne's side in passing, and this time she really shuddered.
At this moment, however, the innumerable bells rang out amid the clouds
above her head.

She pressed Noemi's arm convulsively without speaking. In silence they
crossed the square. Carlino directed them to take a lonely street on the
left, brightly illumined by the moon, which hung just above the dark,
serrated house-tops. Jeanne whispered to her companion: