"No— neither. He sat quite still, in this
chair."

My husband turned away.  If the Colonel
had not been his friend, and so very
simple-minded, honest, and sober a gentleman, I
think Alexis would have suspected some
drunken hoax, and turned him out of the
box immediately. As it was, he only said:

"My dear fellow, the third act is beginning.
Come up again at its close, and tell me if
you again see my invisible friend, who must
find so great an attraction in viewing, gratis,
a dramatic performance."

"I perceive— you think it a mere hallucination
of mine. We shall see. I suspect the
trick is on your side, and that you are harbouring
some proscribed Hungarian. But I'll
not betray him.  Adieu."

"The ghostly Hungarian shall not sit next
you, love, this time," said Alexis, trying once
more to remove the chair.  But possibly,
though he jested, he was slightly nervous,
and his efforts were vain. "What nonsense
this is! lsbel, let us forget it. I will stand
behind you, and watch the play."

He stood.  I clasping his hand secretly and
hard. Then, I grew quieter; until as the
drop-scene fell, the same cold air swept past
us. It was as if some one, fresh from the
sharp sea-wind, had entered the box. And,
just at that moment, we saw Colonel Hart's,
and several other glasses levelled as before.

"It is strange," said Alexis.

"It is horrible,"  I said. For I had been
cradled in Scottish, and then filled with German
superstition; and my own life had been
so wild, so strange, that there was nothing
too ghastly or terrible for my imagination to
conjure up.

"I will summon the Colonel. We must
find out this," said my husband, speaking
beneath his breath, and looking round, as if
he thought he was overheard.

Colonel Hart came up. He looked very
serious; so did a young man who was with
him.

"Captain Elmore— Mrs. Saltram. Saltram,
I have brought my friend here to attest that
I have played off on you no unworthy jest.
Not ten minutes since he, and I, and some
others saw this same gentleman sitting in
this chair."

"Most certainly— in this chair," added the
young captain.

My husband bowed; he kept a courteous
calmness, but I felt his hand grow clammy in
mine.

"Of what appearance, sir, was the unknown
acquaintance of my wife's and mine, whom
everybody appears to see, except ourselves?"
"He  was of middle-age, dark-haired, pale.
His features were very still, rather hard in
expression. He had on a cloth cloak with a
fur collar, and wore a long, pointed
Charles-the-First beard."

My husband and I clung hand to hand with
an inexpressible horror. Could there be
another man—  a living man, who answered
this description?"

"Pardon me, " Alexis said faintly. " The
portrait is rather vague; may I ask you to
repaint it as circumstantially as you can,"

"He was, I repeat, a pale, or rather a
sallow-featured man. His eyes were extremely
piercing, cold, and clear. The mouth close-set
— a very firm but passionless mouth. The
hair dark, seamed with gray— bald on the
brow— "

"O heaven! " I groaned in an anguish of
terror. For I saw again — clear as if he had
never died — the face over which, for twelve
long months, had swept the merciful sea
waves, off the shores of Hispaniola.

"Can you, Captain Elmore, "  said Alexis,
"mention no other distinguishing mark?
This countenance might resemble many
men."

"I think not. It was a most remarkable
face. It struck me the more — because— "
and the young man grew almost as pale as
we — " I once saw another very like it."

"You see — a chance resemblance only.
Fear not, my darling, " Alexis breathed in my
ear. " Sir, have you any reluctance to tell
me who was the gentleman?"

"It was no living man, but a corpse that
we picked up off a wreck, and again committed
to the deep— in the Gulf of Mexico. It
was exactly the same face, and had the same
mark— a scar, cross-shape, over one temple."

"'Tis he!  He can follow and torture us
still; I knew he could!"

Alexis smothered my shriek on his breast.

"My wife is ill. This description resembles
slightly a— a person we once knew. Hart,
will you leave us? But no, we must probe
this mystery. Gentlemen, will you once more
descend to the lower part of the house, whilst
we remain here, and tell me if you still see
this figure sitting in this chair."

They went. We held our breaths. The
lights in the theatre were being extinguished,
the audience moving away.  No one came
near our box; it was perfectly empty. Except
our own two selves, we were conscious of no
sight— no sound. A few minutes after Colonel
Hart knocked.

"Come in," said Alexis, cheerily.

But the Colonel— the bold soldier— shrunk
back like a frightened child.

"I have seen him —  I saw him but this
minute, sitting there."

I swooned away.

It is right I should briefly give you my
history up to this night's date.

I was a West Indian heiress— a posthumous,
and soon after birth, an orphan child. Brought
up in rny mother's country, until I was sixteen
years old;— I never saw my guardian.
Then he met me in Paris, with my governess,
and for the space of two years we lived under
the same roof, seeing one another daily.

I was very young; I had no father or
brother; I wished for neither lover nor husband;