Did I faint away ?" "You did, dear; but let me pray you to refer all this to imagination; or at least the greater part of it." "But you saw it." "Yes--" "All saw it." "We all saw some man--a housebreaker--It must have been some housebreaker.

What more easy, you know, dear Flora, than to assume some such disguise ?" "Was anything stolen ?" "Not that I know of; but there was an alarm, you know." Flora shook her head, as she said, in a low voice,-- "That which came here was more than mortal.

Oh, Henry, if it had but killed me, now I had been happy; but I cannot live--I hear it breathing now." "Talk of something else, dear Flora," said the much distressed Henry; "you will make yourself much worse, if you indulge yourself in these strange fancies." "Oh, that they were but fancies!" "They are, believe me." "There is a strange confusion in my brain, and sleep comes over me suddenly, when I least expect it.

Henry, Henry, what I was, I shall never, never be again." "Say not so.

All this will pass away like a dream, and leave so faint a trace upon your memory, that the time will come when you will wonder it ever made so deep an impression on your mind." "You utter these words, Henry," she said, "but they do not come from your heart.