"I will follow you!" I said, setting my teeth, for the undertaking was a mighty one to me. Yes! I was mastered now by a resolution uncontrollable as superstition and passion could make it, to speak to her. I left Martelli and advanced to the gate. I pushed it open, and passed up the garden walk. Her white shape floated in front. I trod on tiptoe, gained her side, and whispered: "I saw your summons. I am, indeed, grateful to you for this privilege. I have long wished for an interview, but respected too much your obvious desire of solitude"---- But here I broke off; for though I spoke in her ear she did not turn. Had she been a statue, she could not have been more heedless. I was abreast of her; a stride took me in advance. I looked into her face. Her eyes were fixed. In their wonderful depth the moon was mirrored; but they were uninformed and expressionless. They stared from beneath her brow of ivory, soulless and blank. I halted abruptly, as Martelli had done. She swept forward, mounted the steps leading into the house, and vanished. I returned to my friend. I found him leaning against the gate. When he saw me he stood erect. His face was still blanched; but he had mastered himself so far as to speak in a firm voice and to smile. "She is no ghost," he said briefly. "I knew that," I replied. "She was very ghostly though. I can understand your alarm." "I am glad you can. Your own behaviour justifies mine. But I thought you were afraid of neither ghost nor goblin?" "I thought she would move--I thought she would move," he replied. "Her stillness was fearful--it was unexpected--I found it terrible." "But the mystery of her is at an end." "I know what you mean, Sir. Your ghost is nothing more than a somnambulist. I should have guessed it from the beginning--guessed either that she was asleep or that she was mad. Anyone in his senses would have hit upon this." "I didn't. But perhaps I am not in my senses." "Remember, Sir, you are in love!" he exclaimed, with a hard laugh. "Who could help being in love with such a creature? Did you remark her beauty?" "As well as I could by the light. She did not strike me as possessing the charms your enthusiasm would have suggested. To be sure I saw her at a disadvantage. But I do not admire red-haired women; or if they be red-haired, let them have at least blue eyes. Beauty should always be harmonious. And then she walks in her sleep--a qualification I for one could dispense with." "Let us go in," I said. "The issue of this adventure has satisfied me. To-morrow I will introduce myself to her." CHAPTER II. The resolution I had made over night was stronger by the morning. When I met Martelli I told him there would be no use in sitting down to work. "I foresaw this," he replied. "Perhaps it will be better to defer your studies until you are out of this mysterious complication," smiling.