The house was close to the road--apparently an old farmstead--turning blank dark walls and roofs to them, so that it was evidently uninhabited or else inhabited only at the other side.

The young woman looked up at it, apparently not without distrust, but even to her keen scrutiny there was no sign of life.

For the rest, the road lay through a glen, the village was out of sight, and the hills around them were like the hills in Hades--silent, shadowy and cold.
It seemed an unearthly thing that she should have come there to stand and lean against the gate, as if to shut him into his self-sought trap; and there was no impatience about this woman--she stood quite still in that dark, desolate place, as though she was perfectly contented to wait and wait--for what?
how long ?--these were the questions he asked himself.

Was this dark house the abode of evil spirits with which she was in league?
and if so, what result would accrue to him?
There are circumstances which suggest fantastic speculations to the most learned man.
At length he heard a footfall.

He could not tell where at first, but, as it approached, he saw a countryman in a carter's blouse coming across the opposite field.