The Works of George W. M. Reynolds — page 72: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

THE SOLEMN INJUNCTION D0 nimity, yet I was less certain in respect to your maids. For the minds of those who are only partially educated are more susceptible of the influence of superstitious terrors — ”’ ‘“T will candidly inform you, Monsieur Volney,’’ said Zoe, “that it was the gardener who acquainted my maids with that legend, but I beseech you not to visit him with your displeasure.”’ : “And you saw that form while as yet ignorant of the legend?’ said Monsieur Volney, in a musing tone, and with a strange darkness of the looks. ‘‘ Then I myself could not possibly have been deceived.’ “What mean you?” inquired Zoe, quickly, as well as anxiously. “What appearance had the figure?’’ asked Monsieur Volney, without heeding Lady Octavian’s question. “ T saw it but dimly,” rejoined her ladyship, ‘“ and what- ever it might have been — I mean if it were some real, living intruder —I could not conscientiously declare upon my oath in a court of justice that the description, as it was faintly impressed upon my mind, is the accurate one. But it certainly seemed to me to be the form of a tall man, of slender figure, — young too, I should think, —and ap- parelled in dark garments. My ear caught not the slightest sound of a footfall on either occasion, and thus, when after the first occurrence I heard that legend which represents how the unfortunate Lenoir is supposed to glide with his shoeless feet through the passages of this chateau, I was cer- tainly struck with a strange feeling.” “ Yes, strange, most strange,’ muttered Monsieur Volney, and then he looked deeply perplexed. “ And you yourself,” said Zoe, again in anxious inquiry, ‘have some reason — ”’ “ Your ladyship has been candid with me,” interrupted the French gentleman, ‘I will be equally candid with you. Listen, Lady Octavian. Never until this night was I in the faintest degree affected by that legend. Indeed, I have very rarely thought of it since the first day — some five years back — that it was communicated to me. But to-night it is different. I was ascending from my study to my own chamber, when methought that at the end of a passage I beheld a form — just as you have described it — and in exact corre- spondence with the superstitious details of the legend. Not Eomichboo cS (E(@)