“Friend,” said I, “let me aid you.  Unburden your woo to me; I too have suffered and am not without sin.”

Casting his eyes upon me now for the first time, the man scowled with dogged sullenness, and said: 

“I want no help.”

“Nay,” said I, “your looks belie your words; come, go with me to my quiet cottage; there you shall refresh yourself; you shall sleep to-night in peace.”

“Peace!” he repeated scornfully.  “I know no peace; nor can I leave this spot till every eye beholds the horrid deed that I committed here.”

“Friend,” said I, “tell me the nature of your crime; reveal to me your secret and your heart will be lighter for it.”

“Ha! ha!” he answered, his voice dying away in a low wail.  “Look upon that wall opposite the bed; it will speak better than I can.”  I looked, and beheld a faint photograph or impression of the couch, with its handsome drapery.  Upon it reclined the figure of a female, and bending over her appeared the form of a man, whose livid face and black, disordered hair I recognized as an unmistakable reflection of the unfortunate man before me.

“You see that ‘the very stones cry out against me,’” said he.  “Every night for two years have I enacted that same scene, and I am held by some unseen, influence to this baneful spot.”

“Tell me your story,” said I; “hide nothing—­I am your friend.”

He ran his thin fingers through his tangled hair, and with a voice husky with emotion answered: 

“I will tell you.  Some years ago, when a young man, haughty and passionate, I had the misfortune to love a girl whose youth and beauty proved my bane, and in a moment of recklessness I married her.  In her nature were mingled the qualities of the serpent and the dove.  She was my inferior, and I could not own her outwardly nor inwardly as my wife; but, unhappily for the peace of both, I could not rid myself of her.  I gave her money, but it availed not; she was ignorant, and persisted in following me.”  Here the man looked around with a nervous air, as if he expected to see the unwelcome face peering at him through the shadows.

“To avoid her,” he continued, “I secretly purchased this dwelling, remote from the place of her abode.  There I lived for a brief time, happy; a new life with loftier purposes dawned upon me; I formed another attachment—­a higher and more noble one.

“One evening as I was walking upon the balcony thinking of my new-found joys, a figure came creeping up through the shrubbery towards me.  To my amazement it proved to be the girl who claimed me.

“When I saw her, rage entered my heart, and I felt as if I could annihilate her.  But, suppressing all show of feeling, I went with her into the house, and appointed her this room for the night.  A demoniac idea had presented itself to my mind; it came unsought, but under the excitement of the moment it seemed like a good angel of deliverance.