Carmilla

erful

with two large packing cases, having many pictures in each. It was a journey of ten leagues, and whenever a messenge

r was taken charge of by the servants till he had eaten his supper. Then with assistants, and armed with hammer,

h had undergone the process of renovation, were brought to light. My mother was of an old Hungarian family

e pictures were very good, but they were, undoubtedly, very old, and some of them very curious also. They had, for the most part

ner, at the top of it, is the name, as well as I could read, 'Marcia Karns

nd a half high, and nearly square, without a frame; but

. It was quite beautiful; it was startling; it

living, smiling, ready to speak, in this picture. Isn't it b

and went on talking to the picture cleaner, who was also something of an artist, and discoursed with intelligence about the portraits or

g this picture in my

he, smiling, "I'm very g

r even than I thou

ar it. She was leaning back in her seat, her fine eyes under their long l

te plainly the name that

old. The name is Mircalla, Countess Karnstein, an

from the Karnsteins

I think, a very long descent, very ancie

ined, I believe, in some civil wars, long ago, but the

She glanced through the hall door, which stood a little open. "Suppose you

he night you cam

ghed;

rm about the other's waist, w

to the drawbridge, where the bea

g of the night I came he

u glad

ear Carmilla,

drew her arm closer about my waist, and let her pretty head sink upon my shoulder. "How romantic you are,

sed me

in love; that there is, at this mome

, and never shall," she whispere

she looked in

face in my neck and hair, with tumultuous sighs, that seem

rling, darling," she murmured, "I live in yo

ted fr

which all fire, all meaning had flow

d drowsily. "I almost shiver; have I been dr

ittle faint. You certainly m

ll in a few minutes. Yes, do give me a little win

it is the last time, perhaps, I s

ear Carmilla? Are you r

have been stricken with the strange epidemic

ere ever so little ill, without immediately letting us know. We have

t, dear child, I am quite well again. There is n

old: and every now and then the little strength I have falters, and I become as you have just seen me. B

d the remainder of that evening passed without any recurrence of what I called her in

y thoughts quite a new turn, and seemed to startle