It was gloomy. Standing still to listen, the silence was oppressive. Then, all of a sudden, there was a shrill skreel that made me start; and some bird, I suppose, came flapping out of the darkness and went fluttering away into the shadow. It must have been a bird, although it looked too big even to be a giant owl or a raven. I laughed at my scared sensation, and walked briskly onward. Presently I came to a clearing where the grass was mown, and there was a bench against a clump of tall laurels. I was going towards this with the intention of resting awhile, when I stopped short. A lady was seated in the corner, in the shadow. Good heavens! It might be Lilia! She was just the girl to wander about out of doors on a hot night. I did not know whether I was glad or sorry when the being rose and came towards me. To my amazement, I saw a very graceful woman, in a white gown of some stuff which shimmered in the moonlight. A veil of black gauze or lace was about her head and neck. “You are not—angry?” she said in a slow way; she had a foreign accent. “Come, I must speak.” As she said the word “must,” she actually placed her hand on my arm in the most familiar way, and half led me across the grass plat. “We will go to the terrace and talk,” she said presently, in quite an imperious manner. I was so numbed by surprise, that I had gone passively with her some distance along the path that led away from the house or grounds before I had made up my mind what to do. She was no ghost. As she pressed close against my arm, I felt solidity and warmth. Then it flashed across me. She was dressed in quite queenly fashion. Of course! An escaped lunatic from a well-known private asylum in the neighbourhood. I stopped, withdrew her hand gently and respectfully, and suggested that she must be very tired. “Allow me to take you home, princess,” I said, haphazard. I had seemingly struck the right chord. “Do not call me that any more!” she said, passionately. “I am less than you! Far less!” Once more she took my arm, and hurried me along an uphill path I had not seen. To our left, below us, was the park, with the round chapel in the garden; to our right was a plateau, a long, wide, grassy avenue, with fine trees on either side. My strange companion turned abruptly to the right, and almost dragged me along a grassy path that went straight to the end of the avenue, between beds of overgrown shrubs and tangled weeds. My wits were returning. I felt inclined to go through with the adventure. She was evidently a lady. There was no hidden danger, I felt that. Half-way up this avenue there was a broken-down fountain. Around was a circular grass plat. As we reached this the lady relinquished my arm, stepped back, and began speaking rapidly in a language I have not yet heard. At the end, she seized my hand, and before I could snatch it away, kissed it. I felt horribly unnerved. I begged her to let me take her home.