Cruel As The Grave

"Tell me," he said soothingly.

"Oh, it was a damp girl!" she cried.

"A damp girl!" he echoed in amazement and alarm; for he almost feared

his dear wife was going crazy.

"Oh yes, a damp girl! A clay-cold, clammy, corpse-like form of a girl!"

"Where? when? what about her?"

"Oh, I woke up and felt her lying by my side! so close that she chilled

and oppressed me! I put out my hand, and she caught it in her deathly

fingers! I screamed, but she spoke to me! She was about to tell me

something, when she was suddenly snatched up and torn away!"

"My dear Sybil, this was nightmare again!"

"Oh, no, no, no! I have had nightmare, and know what it is! It is not

like this! All this was real, as real as you and I! This place is full

of devils!"

"My darling wife, have you lost your senses?"

"Oh, no; but I shall lose them if I stay in this demon-haunted place a

day longer!"

"Thank Heaven! we will not have to stay here a day longer. We leave,

this coming evening. And see! the morning is dawning, Sybil; and with

the coming of the light, all these shadows of darkness and phantoms of

fear will flee away," said Lyon with a smile.

"Oh, you don't believe me. You never do believe me. But oh! let me tell

you all about this ghastly thing, and then perhaps you will see that it

is real," said Sybil.

And still in much agitation of spirits, she told him all the

particulars of her strange visitation.

He still believed in his soul that she had been the victim of incubus,

but he would not vex her by persisting in saying so. He only repeated

that the morning was at hand, when all the terrors of the night would be

dispersed; and added that they would not have to pass another night in

the "demon-peopled place," as this would be the very last day of their

stay.

As soon as it was light enough, they dressed themselves, and set about

their simple daily work. He made the fire, and brought the water; and

she cleared up their housekeeping corner, and prepared the breakfast.

When the sun arose and streamed in at the east windows, lighting up

every nook about the interior of the old chapel, they saw that

everything remained in the same condition in which they had left it when

they had gone to rest on the evening previous.

Lyon Berners felt more than ever convinced that his dear Sybil had been

the victim of repeated nightmares; that all the seemingly supernatural

phenomena of the Haunted Chapel had been only the creation of her own

morbid imagination; that nothing connected with the mystery had been

real, with the exception of the appearance of the girl in the red cloak,

whom Mr. Berners decided to be an ordinary human habitué of the place.