Meanwhile, the unaccountable terror which our lodger’s presence inspired continued to increase.  One of our maids gave us warning, solely from her dread of our queer inmate, and the strange accessories which haunted him.  She said—­and this was corroborated by her fellow-servant—­that Mr. Smith seemed to have constantly a companion in his room; that although they never heard them speak, they continually and distinctly heard the tread of two persons walking up and down the room together, and described accurately the peculiar sound of a stick or crutch tapping upon the floor, which my own ears had heard.  They also had seen the large, ill-conditioned cat I have mentioned, frequently steal in and out of the stranger’s room; and observed that when our little girl was in greatest danger, the hateful animal was constantly writhing, fawning, and crawling about the door of the sick room after nightfall.  They were thoroughly persuaded that this ill-omened beast was the foul fiend himself, and I confess I could not—­sceptic as I was—­bring myself absolutely to the belief that he was nothing more than a “harmless, necessary cat.”  These and similar reports—­implicitly believed as they palpably were by those who made them—­were certainly little calculated to allay the perturbation and alarm with which our household was filled.

The evenings had by this time shortened very much, and darkness often overtook us before we sate down to our early tea.  It happened just at this period of which I have been speaking, after my little girl had begun decidedly to mend, that I was sitting in our dining-parlour, with my little boy fast asleep upon my knees, and thinking of I know not what, my wife having gone up stairs, as usual, to sit in the room with little Fanny.  As I thus sate in what was to me, in effect, total solitude, darkness unperceived stole on us.

On a sudden, as I sate, with my elbow leaning upon the table, and my other arm round the sleeping child, I felt, as I thought, a cold current of air faintly blowing upon my forehead.  I raised my head, and saw, as nearly as I could calculate, at the far end of the table on which my arm rested, two large green eyes confronting me.  I could see no more, but instantly concluded they were those of the abominable cat.  Yielding to an impulse of horror and abhorrence, I caught a water-croft that was close to my hand, and threw it full at it with all my force.  I must have missed my object, for the shining eyes continued fixed for a second, and then glided still nearer to me, and then a little nearer still.  The noise of the glass smashed with so much force upon the table called in the servant, who happened to be passing.  She had a candle in her hand, and, perhaps, the light alarmed the odious beast, for as she came in it was gone.

I had had an undefined idea that its approach was somehow connected with a designed injury of some sort to the sleeping child.  I could not be mistaken as to the fact that I had plainly seen the two broad, glaring, green eyes.  Where the cursed animal had gone I had not observed:  it might, indeed, easily have run out at the door as the servant opened it, but neither of us had seen it do so; and we were every one of us in such a state of nervous excitement, that even this incident was something in the catalogue of our ambiguous experiences.