From these veritable statements it will be readily concluded that,
had Monsieur du Miroir played such pranks in old witch times,
matters might have gone hard with him; at least if the constable and
posse comitatus could have executed a warrant, or the jailer had
been cunning enough to keep him. But it has often occurred to me as
a very singular circumstance, and as betokening either a temperament
morbidly suspicious or some weighty cause of apprehension, that he
never trusts himself within the grasp even of his most intimate
friend. If you step forward to meet him, he readily advances; if
you offer him your hand, he extends his own with an air of the
utmost frankness; but, though you calculate upon a hearty shake, you
do not get hold of his little finger. Ah, this Monsieur du Miroir is
a slippery fellow!

These truly are matters of special admiration. After vainly
endeavoring, by the strenuous exertion of my own wits, to gain a
satisfactory insight into the character of Monsieur du Miroir, I had
recourse to certain wise men, and also to books of abstruse
philosophy, seeking who it was that haunted me, and why. I heard
long lectures and read huge volumes with little profit beyond the
knowledge that many former instances are recorded, in successive
ages, of similar connections between ordinary mortals and beings
possessing the attributes of Monsieur du Miroir. Some now alive,
perhaps, besides myself, have such attendants. Would that Monsieur
du Miroir could be persuaded to transfer his attachment to one of
those, and allow some other of his race to assume the situation that
he now holds in regard to me! If I must needs have so intrusive an
intimate, who stares me in the face in my closest privacy, and
follows me even to my bedchamber, I should prefer--scandal apart--
the laughing bloom of a young girl to the dark and bearded gravity