“He was in the billiard-room with Raggerton, and the pair looked up sharply as I entered.

“‘Alfred,’ I said, ‘where does that passage lead to out of my room?’

“‘Lead to?’ said he.  ’Why, it doesn’t lead anywhere.  It used to open into a cross corridor, but when the house was altered, the corridor was done away with, and this passage closed up.  It is only a cupboard now.’

“‘Well, there’s a man in it—­or there was just now.’

“‘Nonsense!’ he exclaimed; ’impossible!  Let us go and look at the place.’

“He and Raggerton rose, and we went together to my room.  As we flung open the door of the closet and looked in, we all three burst into a laugh.  There were three men now looking at us from the open door at the other end, and the mystery was solved.  A large mirror had been placed at the end of the closet to cover the partition which cut it off from the cross corridor.

“This incident naturally exposed me to a good deal of chaff from my cousin and Captain Raggerton; but I often wished that the mirror had not been placed there, for it happened over and over again that, going to the cupboard hurriedly, and not thinking of the mirror, I got quite a bad shock on being confronted by a figure apparently coming straight at me through an open door.  In fact, it annoyed me so much, in my nervous state, that I even thought of asking my cousin to give me a different room; but, happening to refer to the matter when talking to Raggerton, I found the Captain so scornful of my cowardice that my pride was touched, and I let the affair drop.

[Illustration:  THE APPARITION IN THE MIRROR]

“And now I come to a very strange occurrence, which I shall relate quite frankly, although I know beforehand that you will set me down as a liar or a lunatic.  I had been away from home for a fortnight, and as I returned rather late at night, I went straight to my room.  Having partly undressed, I took my clothes in one hand and a candle in the other, and opened the cupboard door.  I stood for a moment looking nervously at my double, standing, candle in hand, looking at me through the open door at the other end of the passage; then I entered, and, setting the candle on a shelf, proceeded to hang up my clothes.  I had hung them up, and had just reached up for the candle, when my eye was caught by something strange in the mirror.  It no longer reflected the candle in my hand, but instead of it, a large coloured paper lantern.  I stood petrified with astonishment, and gazed into the mirror; and then I saw that my own reflection was changed, too; that, in place of my own figure, was that of an elderly Chinaman, who stood regarding me with stony calm.

“I must have stood for near upon a minute, unable to move and scarce able to breathe, face to face with that awful figure.  At length I turned to escape, and, as I turned, he turned also, and I could see him, over my shoulder, hurrying away.  As I reached the door, I halted for a moment, looking back with the door in my hand, holding the candle above my head; and even so he halted, looking back at me, with his hand upon the door and his lantern held above his head.