Edward's face was now atrociously distorted, and he bent it uncomfortably close to mine as his voice fell to a whisper. "You must know what I hinted in the car--_that she isn't Asenath at all, but really old Ephraim himself_. I suspected it a year and a half ago, and I know it now. Her handwriting shows it when she goes off guard--sometimes she jots down a note in writing that's just like her father's manuscripts, stroke for stroke--and sometimes she says things that nobody but an old man like Ephraim could say. He changed forms with her when he felt death coming--she was the only one he could find with the right kind of brain and a weak enough will--he got her body permanently, just as she almost got mine, and then poisoned the old body he'd put her into. Haven't you seen old Ephraim's soul glaring out of that she-devil's eyes dozens of times--and out of mine when she has control of my body?" The whisperer was panting, and paused for breath. I said nothing, and when he resumed, his voice was nearer normal. This, I reflected, was a case for the asylum, but I would not be the one to send him there. Perhaps time and freedom from Asenath would do its work. I could see that he would never wish to dabble in morbid occultism again. "I'll tell you more later--I must have a long rest now. I'll tell you something of the forbidden horrors she led me into--something of the age-old horrors that even now are festering in out-of-the-way corners with a few monstrous priests to keep them alive. Some people know things about the universe that nobody ought to know, and can do things that nobody ought to be able to do. I've been in it up to my neck, but that's the end. Today I'd burn that damned _Necronomicon_ and all the rest if I were librarian at Miskatonic. "But she can't get me now. I must get out of that accursed house as soon as I can, and settle down at home. You'll help me, I know, if I need help. Those devilish servants, you know--and if people should get too inquisitive about Asenath. You see, I can't give them her address.... Then there are certain groups of searchers--certain cults, you know--that might misunderstand our breaking up ... some of them have damnably curious ideas and methods. I know you'll stand by me if anything happens--even if I have to tell you a lot that will shock you...." * * * * * I had Edward stay and sleep in one of the guest-chambers that night, and in the morning he seemed calmer. We discussed certain possible arrangements for his moving back into the Derby mansion, and I hoped he would lose no time in making the change. He did not call the next evening, but I saw him frequently during the ensuing weeks. We talked as little as possible about strange and unpleasant things, but discussed the renovation of the old Derby house, and the travels which Edward promised to take with my son and me the following summer.