"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.