Page:Adventures of Susan Hopley (Volume 1).pdf/57

44 through the chinks of the shutters, I couldn't summon courage to move. Gradually, when it illuminated the objects around me sufficiently, I forced myself to survey the room, and with a great effort to turn my head and look behind me-but every thing as far as I could see, was just as it was when I went to sleep. By and by, as the light grew stronger, I arose and opened the door that led out upon the stairs-but nothing unusual was to be seen or heard. Then I went to the dressing-closet-there too I could perceive no change. I tried my master's drawers and boxes, which had been all locked when he went away-and locked they were still. Finally, I examined the other rooms, both on that floor and below; but all was right. Nothing could I find to induce the suspicion that my dream was any thing but a dream.

"Well, Sir, you know how differently one feels about things in the broad daylight that have frightened and puzzled us in the dark; and you may imagine that the lighter it grew, the more absurd my terror appeared to me; till, at last, by the time the sun was up, I was ready to laugh at myself for my folly, and when the servants came down stairs and found me warming myself by the kitchen fire, and