“He has, as you are doubtless aware, a weakness for vivid colouring, and her bright yellow hair, carmine lips, and scarlet stockings struck him impressively as she led the way to his bed-chamber, where she somewhat reluctantly parted from him with a subtly attractive smile.

“Left to himself, Martin sleepily examined his surroundings.  The room, oak-panelled throughout, was long, low, and gloomy; an enormous, old-fashioned, empty fireplace occupied the centre of one of the walls; on the one side of it was an oak settee, on the other an equally ponderous black oak chest.

“Heavy oaken beams traversed the ceiling, and the sombre, funereal character of the room was further increased by a colossal and antique four-poster which, placed in the exact middle of the chamber, faced a gigantic mirror attached to grotesquely carved and excessively lofty sable supports.

“Viewed in the feeble, fluctuating candlelight, the latter seemed endowed with some peculiar and emphatically weird life—­their glistening, polished surfaces threw a dozen and one fantastic but oddly human shadows on the boards, as at the same time they appeared in bewildering alternation to increase and diminish in stature.

“Tristram hastily undressed, and stretching himself between the blankets, prepared to go to sleep.  Like yourself, and for a similar reason, he never sleeps on his left side.  Accordingly he occupied the right portion only of the enormous bed.

“Why he did not fall asleep at once he could not explain; he fancied that it might be because he was overtired.  This undoubtedly had something to do with it, as also had the remarkable noises—­footfalls, creaks, and sighs—­that came from every corner of the apartment the moment the light was out.

“He listened to these inexplicable sounds with increasing alarm until the sonorous clock from somewhere outside boomed ‘one,’ when, quite unaccountably, he fell asleep, awaking on the stroke of two from a dreadful nightmare.

“To his intense astonishment and consternation he was no longer alone in the bed—­someone, or something, was lying by his side on the left-hand side of the bed.

“At first his thoughts reverted to the young lady with the scarlet stockings; then, a sensation of icy coldness, whilst speedily reassuring him with regard to her, struck him with the utmost terror.  Who or what could it be?

“For some seconds he lay in breathless silence, too frightened even to stir, and panic-stricken lest the violent beating of his heart should arouse the mysterious visitor.  But at length, impelled by an irresistible impulse, he sat up in bed and opened his eyes.  The room was aglow with a phosphorescent light, and in the depths of the glittering mirror he saw a startling reproduction of the phantasmagoric four-poster.

“He instinctively felt that there was some extraordinary change in the supports, and that the suspicions he had at first entertained as to their semi-human properties had become verified; but, mercifully for his sanity, he found it impossible to look.  His attention was immediately riveted on the object by his side, which he recognized with a thrill of surprise was a bronzed and bearded man of rather more than middle age, who appeared to be buried in the most profound sleep.