There was a diabolical look of concentrated hatred upon Varney’s face, as he now advanced two paces towards the beautiful Flora.

CHAPTER XXXIV.

THE THREAT.—­ITS CONSEQUENCES.—­THE RESCUE, AND SIR FRANCIS VARNEY’S DANGER.

[Illustration]

Sir Francis Varney now paused again, and he seemed for a few moments to gloat over the helpless condition of her whom he had so determined to make his victim; there was no look of pity in his face, no one touch of human kindness could be found in the whole expression of those diabolical features; and if he delayed making the attempt to strike terror into the heart of that unhappy, but beautiful being, it could not be from any relenting feeling, but simply, that he wished for a few moments to indulge his imagination with the idea of perfecting his villany more effectually.

Alas! and they who would have flown to her rescue,—­they, who for her would have chanced all accidents, ay, even life itself, were sleeping, and knew not of the loved one’s danger.  She was alone, and far enough from the house, to be driven to that tottering verge where sanity ends, and the dream of madness, with all its terrors, commences.

But still she slept—­if that half-waking sleep could indeed be considered as any thing akin to ordinary slumber—­still she slept, and called mournfully upon her lover’s name; and in tender, beseeching accents, that should have melted even the stubbornest hearts, did she express her soul’s conviction that he loved her still.

The very repetition of the name of Charles Holland seemed to be galling to Sir Francis Varney.  He made a gesture of impatience, as she again uttered it, and then, stepping forward, he stood within a pace of where she sat, and in a fearfully distinct voice he said,—­

“Flora Bannerworth, awake! awake! and look upon me, although the sight blast and drive you to despair.  Awake! awake!”

It was not the sound of the voice which aroused her from that strange slumber.  It is said that those who sleep in that eccentric manner, are insensible to sounds, but that the lightest touch will arouse them in an instant; and so it was in this case, for Sir Francis Varney, as he spoke, laid upon the hand of Flora two of his cold, corpse-like looking fingers.  A shriek burst from her lips, and although the confusion of her memory and conceptions was immense, yet she was awake, and the somnambulistic trance had left her.

“Help, help!” she cried.  “Gracious Heavens!  Where am I?”

Varney spoke not, but he spread out his long, thin arms in such a manner that he seemed almost to encircle her, while he touched her not, so that escape became a matter of impossibility, and to attempt to do so, must have been to have thrown herself into his hideous embrace.

She could obtain but a single view of the face and figure of him who opposed her progress, but, slight as that view was, it more than sufficed.  The very extremity of fear came across her, and she sat like one paralysed; the only evidence of existence she gave consisting in the words,—­