to a pale man in a black cloak who had come into the room.

"Look at that man! Look there! What does he want?"

"My dear," returned her husband, "I'll ask him if you'll let me go.
What's the matter! How you shake!"

"I saw him in the street, when I was out just now. He looked at
me, and stood near me. I am afraid of him."

"Afraid of him! Why?"

"I don't know why--I--stop! husband!" for he was going towards the
stranger.

She had one hand pressed upon her forehead, and one upon her
breast; and there was a peculiar fluttering all over her, and a
hurried unsteady motion of her eyes, as if she had lost something.

"Are you ill, my dear?"

"What is it that is going from me again?" she muttered, in a low
voice. "What IS this that is going away?"

Then she abruptly answered: "Ill? No, I am quite well," and
stood looking vacantly at the floor.

Her husband, who had not been altogether free from the infection of
her fear at first, and whom the present strangeness of her manner
did not tend to reassure, addressed himself to the pale visitor in