“Dare we longer doubt it?” cried Henry, in a tone of excitement.  “He is the vampyre.”

“I’ll be hanged if I believe it,” said Admiral Bell!  “Stuff and nonsense!  Vampyre, indeed!  Bother the vampyre.”

“Sir,” said Henry, “you have not had brought before you, painfully, as we have, all the circumstances upon which we, in a manner, feel compelled to found this horrible belief.  At first incredulity was a natural thing.  We had no idea that ever we could be brought to believe in such a thing.”

“That is the case,” added Marchdale.  “But, step by step, we have been driven from utter disbelief in this phenomenon to a trembling conviction that it must be true.”

“Unless we admit that, simultaneously, the senses of a number of persons have been deceived.”

“That is scarcely possible.”

“Then do you mean really to say there are such fish?” said the admiral.

“We think so.”

“Well, I’m d——­d!  I have heard all sorts of yarns about what fellows have seen in one ocean and another; but this does beat them all to nothing.”

“It is monstrous,” exclaimed Charles.

There was a pause of some few moments’ duration, and then Mr. Marchdale said, in a low voice,—­

“Perhaps I ought not to propose any course of action until you, Henry, have yourself done so; but even at the risk of being presumptuous, I will say that I am firmly of opinion you ought to leave the Hall.”

“I am inclined to think so, too,” said Henry.

“But the creditors?” interposed Charles.

“I think they might be consulted on the matter beforehand,” added Marchdale, “when no doubt they would acquiesce in an arrangement which could do them no harm.”

“Certainly, no harm,” said Henry, “for I cannot take the estate with me, as they well know.”

“Precisely.  If you do not like to sell it, you can let it.”

“To whom?”

“Why, under the existing circumstances, it is not likely you would get any tenant for it than the one who has offered himself.”

“Sir Francis Varney?”

“Yes.  It seems to be a great object with him to live here, and it appears to me, that notwithstanding all that has occurred, it is most decidedly the best policy to let him.”

Nobody could really deny the reasonableness of this advice, although it seemed strange, and was repugnant to the feelings of them all, as they heard it.  There was a pause of some seconds’ duration, and then Henry said,—­

“It does, indeed, seem singular, to surrender one’s house to such a being.”

“Especially,” said Charles, “after what has occurred.”

“True.”

“Well,” said Mr. Marchdale, “if any better plan of proceeding, taking the whole case into consideration, can be devised, I shall be most happy.”

“Will you consent to put off all proceedings for three days?” said Charles Holland, suddenly.