feet, borne thither by some eddying wind from the trees behind. As I
gazed, filled with a new pleasure, a drop of rain upon my face made me
look up. From a grey, fleecy cloud, with sun-whitened border, a light,
gracious, plentiful rain was falling. A rainbow sprang across the sky,
and the statue stood within the rainbow. At the same moment, from the
base of the pedestal rose a figure in white, graceful as the Dryad
above, and neither running, nor appearing to walk quickly, yet fleet as
a ghost, glided past me at a few paces, distance, and, keeping in a
straight line for the main entrance of the hall, entered by it and
vanished.

I followed in the direction of the mansion, which was large, and of
several styles and ages. One wing appeared especially ancient. It was
neglected and out of repair, and had in consequence a desolate, almost
sepulchral look, an expression heightened by the number of large
cypresses which grew along its line. I went up to the central door and
knocked. It was opened by a grave, elderly butler. I passed under its
flat arch, as if into the midst of the waiting events of my story. For,
as I glanced around the hall, my consciousness was suddenly saturated,
if I may be allowed the expression, with the strange feeling--known to
everyone, and yet so strange--that I had seen it before; that, in fact,
I knew it perfectly. But what was yet more strange, and far more
uncommon, was, that, although the feeling with regard to the hall faded
and vanished instantly, and although I could not in the least surmise
the appearance of any of the regions into which I was about to be
ushered, I yet followed the butler with a kind of indefinable
expectation of seeing something which I had seen before; and every room
or passage in that mansion affected me, on entering it for the first
time, with the same sensation of previous acquaintance which I had
experienced with regard to the hall. This sensation, in every case, died