spectre continue to prove troublesome, it would be almost impossible to
reach the body so as to destroy it by fire; besides which, he could not do
it without assistance, and the probability of discovery. If, however, the
apparition should turn out to be no vampire, but only a respectable ghost,
they might manage to endure its presence, till it should be weary of
haunting them.

"He resolved at last to convey the body for the meantime into a concealed
cellar in the house, seeing something must be done before his daughter
came down. Proceeding to remove it, his consternation as greatly increased
when he discovered how the body had grown in weight since he had thus
disposed of it, leaving on his mind scarcely a hope that it could turn out
not to be a vampire after all. He could scarcely stir it, and there was
but one whom he could call to his assistance--the old woman who acted as
his housekeeper and servant.

"He went to her room, roused her, and told her the whole story. Devoted to
her master for many years, and not quite so sensitive to fearful
influences as when less experienced in horrors, she showed immediate
readiness to render him assistance. Utterly unable, however, to lift the
mass between them, they could only drag and push it along; and such a slow
toil was it that there was no time to remove the traces of its track,
before Lilith came down and saw a broad white line leading from the door
of the studio down the cellar-stairs. She knew in a moment what it meant;
but not a word was uttered about the matter, and the name of Karl
Wolkenlicht seemed to be entirely forgotten.

"But how could the affairs of a house go on all the same when every one of
the household knew that a dead body lay in the cellar?--nay more, that,
although it lay still and dead enough all day, it would come half alive at