"It is told me that you can read the future; I would ask if you can also look back into the past ?" He felt the snake-like glance bent fixedly upon him.

There was a subtle fascination in those eyes, and he looked into them fixedly whether he would or no.

As his eyes became used to the dimness in which the old woman sat, he saw that her face was brown and wrinkled like a fragment of ancient parchment, that her features were very sharp and wasted, and that there was something weird and witch-like in her whole aspect.

He felt as though he had seen before some face that that withered one faintly resembled, but in the confusion of the moment he could put no name to it.

He wanted to keep his head, and to retain his firmness and acuteness, but he was conscious of a strange whirling in his brain as the old woman continued to gaze and gaze upon him as though she would never be satisfied with her inspection.
At last she spoke again.
"And who art thou that comest so boldly to pry into the dead secrets of the past ?" "I am one Cuthbert Trevlyn, son of a house that has suffered sore vicissitudes.