J.S. Le Fanu's Ghostly Tales, Volume 5

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nd, for the lobby windows were rattling furiously, and he

of his four-poster, on the dressing-table between the windows. He tried to make the curtains meet, but they would not draw; and

gain. There was a good fire, and a reinforcement of round coal and wood inside the fender. So he piled it up to ensure a cheerful blaze through the night, and placing a little black maho

storm. It was only the gentle rustle and rush of the curtains, which fell open again; and as his eyes opened, he saw the

nce of the storm. He did not care to get up, therefore-the fire being bright and cheery-to replace the curtains by a chair, in the po

inctly hear a sound which startled him a good deal, though there was nothing necessarily supernatural in it. He described it as resembling what would occur if you fancied a thinnish table-leaf, with a convex warp in it, depressed the re

e same time there came a tap at his door, and a sort of crescendo "hush-sh-sh!" Once more my uncle was sitting up, scared and perturbed, in his bed. He recollected, however, that he had bolted his door; and such inveterate materialists are we in the midst of our spiritualism, that this reassured him, and he breathed a deep sigh, and began to grow tranquil. But after a rest of a minute or two,