The steps were nearer and nearer--they stopped at the door--there was a loud commanding blow on the panels. "Who's here at this time of night?" cried Leander, aloud. "Come in, if you want to!" But the door remained shut, and there came another rap, even more imperious. "I shall go mad if this goes on!" he muttered, and making a desperate rush to the door, threw it wide open, and then staggered back panic-stricken. Upon the threshold stood a tall figure in classical drapery. His eyes might have deceived him in the omnibus; but here, in the crude gaslight, he could not be mistaken. It was the statue he had last seen in Rosherwich Gardens--now, in some strange and wondrous way, moving--alive! A DISTINGUISHED STRANGER III. "How could it be a dream? Yet there She stood, the moveless image fair!" _The Earthly Paradise._ With slow and stately tread the statue advanced towards the centre of the hairdresser's humble sitting-room, and stood there awhile, gazing about her with something of scornful wonder in her calm cold face. As she turned her head, the wide, deeply-cut sockets seemed the home of shadowy eyes; her face, her bared arms, and the long straight folds of her robe were all of the same greyish-yellow hue; the boards creaked under her sandalled feet, and Leander felt that he had never heard of a more appallingly massive ghost--if ghost indeed she were. He had retired step by step before her to the hearthrug, where he now stood shivering, with the fire hot at his back, and his kettle still singing on undismayed. He made no attempt to account for her presence there on any rationalistic theory. A statue had suddenly come to life, and chosen to pay him a nocturnal visit; he knew no more than that, except that he would have given worlds for courage to show it the door. The spectral eyes were bent upon him, as if in expectation that he would begin the conversation, and, at last, with a very unmanageable tongue, he managed to observe-- "Did you want to see me on--on business, mum?" [Illustration: "DID YOU WANT TO SEE ME ON--ON BUSINESS, MUM?"] But the statue only relaxed her lips in a haughty smile. "For goodness' sake, say something!" he cried wildly; "unless you want me to jump out of the winder! What is it you've come about?" It seemed to him that in some way a veil had lifted from the stone face, leaving it illumined by a strange light, and from the lips came a voice which addressed him in solemn far-away tones, as of one talking in sleep. He could not have said with certainty that the language was his own, though somehow he understood her perfectly. "You know me not?" she said, with a kind of sad indifference. "Well," Leander admitted, as politely as his terror would allow, "you certingly have the advantage of me for the moment, mum."