She had quite lost sight of that motionless figure, but it was all the more terrible to her now that it was unseen.
She screamed with sheer terror, but her scream availed no more than her words.
"Sir," she cried, clutching forward with her hands and grasping his sleeve, "you frighten me.

You terrify me.

I have never harmed you.
Why should you wish to hurt an unfortunate woman?
Oh, speak to me; for God's sake, speak!" Still the patter of rain upon the window, and no other sound save her own sharp breathing.
"Perhaps you do not know who I am!" she continued, endeavouring to assume her usual tone of command, and talking now to an absolute and impenetrable darkness.

"You may learn when it is too late that you have chosen the wrong person for this pleasantry.

I am the Marquise de Montespan, and I am not one who forgets a slight.