The Gothic Terror MEGAPACK™: 17 Classic Tales by Henry James, Ann Radcliffe, J. Sheridan Le Fanu, Gertrude Atherton Read Free Book Online Page A

calls her the Dutch hag, and other names you would not like to hear, and I am sure she is neither English nor Irish; for, whenever they talk together, they speak some queer foreign lingo, and fast enough, I’ll be bound. But I ought not to talk about her at all; it might be as much as my place is worth to mention her—only you saw her first yourself, so there can be no great harm in speaking of her now.”
    “How long has this lady been here?” continued I.
    “She came early on the morning after your ladyship’s arrival,” answered she; “but do not ask me any more, for the master would think nothing of turning me out of doors for daring to speak of her at all, much less to you, my lady.”
    I did not like to press the poor woman further, for her reluctance to speak on this topic was evident and strong.
    You will readily believe that upon the very slight grounds which my information afforded, contradicted as it was by the solemn oath of my husband, and derived from what was, at best, a very questionable source, I could not take any very decisive measure whatever; and as to the menace of the strange woman who had thus unaccountably twice intruded herself into my chamber, although, at the moment, it occasioned me some uneasiness, it was not, even in my eyes, sufficiently formidable to induce my departure from Cahergillagh.
    A few nights after the scene which I have just mentioned, Lord Glenfallen having, as usual, early retired to his study, I was left alone in the parlour to amuse myself as best I might.
    It was not strange that my thoughts should often recur to the agitating scenes in which I had recently taken a part.
    The subject of my reflections, the solitude, the silence, and the lateness of the hour, as also the depression of spirits to which I had of late been a constant prey, tended to produce that nervous excitement which places us wholly at the mercy of the imagination.
    In order to calm my spirits I was endeavouring to direct my thoughts into some more pleasing channel, when I heard, or thought I heard, uttered, within a few yards of me, in an odd, half-sneering tone, the words,
    “There is blood upon your ladyship’s throat.”
    So vivid was the impression that I started to my feet, and involuntarily placed my hand upon my neck.
    I looked around the room for the speaker, but in vain.
    I went then to the room-door, which I opened, and peered into the passage, nearly faint with horror lest some leering, shapeless thing should greet me upon the threshold.
    When I had gazed long enough to assure myself that no strange object was within sight, “I have been too much of a rake lately; I am racking out my nerves,” said I, speaking aloud, with a view to reassure myself.
    I rang the bell, and, attended by old Martha, I retired to settle for the night.
    While the servant was—as was her custom—arranging the lamp which I have already stated always burned during the night in my chamber, I was employed in undressing, and, in doing so, I had recourse to a large looking-glass which occupied a considerable portion of the wall in which it was fixed, rising from the ground to a height of about six feet—this mirror filled the space of a large panel in the wainscoting opposite the foot of the bed.
    I had hardly been before it for the lapse of a minute when something like a black pall was slowly waved between me and it.
    “Oh, God! there it is,” I exclaimed, wildly. “I have seen it again, Martha—the black cloth.”
    “God be merciful to us, then!” answered she, tremulously crossing herself. “Some misfortune is over us.”
    “No, no, Martha,” said I, almost instantly recovering my collectedness; for, although of a nervous temperament, I had never been superstitious. “I do not believe in omens. You know I saw, or fancied I saw, this thing before, and nothing followed.”
    “The Dutch lady came the next morning,” replied she.
    “But surely her coming scarcely deserved such a dreadful warning,” I