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"Rupert Sent Leger, before we go a step further I e you, on your most sacred honour andbelief, to answer s who may not die, but have to live in shameful existence betweenearth and the nether world, and whose hellish mission is to destroy, bodyand soul, those who love theentleman, and a brave oneI have found you fearlessAnswer me insternest truth, no matter what the issue may be!"

She stood there in the glanitywhich seeht her white shroudseemed diaphanous, and she appeared like a spirit of powerWhat was Ito say?How could I ad that I had actually had at doubt?It was a conviction with ly I should lose her for everI was in a desperatestraitIn such a case there is but one solid ground which one may reston--the Truth

I really felt I was between the devil and the deep seaThere was noavoiding the issue, and so, out of this all-econviction of truth, I spoke

For a fleeting moment I felt that my tone was truculent, and alnation on er approval, I was reassuredA wo, for all belief in him must be based on that

"I shall speak the truthRes, but as you conjure ive me if IpainIt is true that I had at first--ay, and later, when I caone, when reason ca belief that you are a Vah I love you with all h I have heldyou in my arms and kissed you on the mouth, a doubt, when all theevidences see?Reht, except that bitter moment when, in the broad noonday of theupper world, I saw you, clad as ever in a shroud, lying seely dead ina tomb in the crypt of St Sava's ChurchBut let that passSuchbelief as I have is all in youBe you woman or Vampire, it is all thesame to meIt is _you_ whom I love!Should it be that you are--you arenot wolory to break yourfetters, to open your prison, and set you freeTo that I consecratewith the passionwhich had been awakened in hty isolation, and had softened into woainIt was reallylike a realization of the old the than a co voice that she said:

"And shall you always be true to me?"

"Always--so help me, God!" I answered, and I felt that there could be nolack of conviction in my voice

Indeed, there was no cause for such lackShe also stood for a littlewhile stone-still, and I was beginning to expand to the rapture which wasin store for ain in her arms

But there was no such moment of softnessAll at once she started as ifshe had suddenly wakened from a dream, and on the spur of the momentsaid:

"Now go, go!"I felt the conviction of necessity to obey, and turned atonceAs I moved towards the door by which I had entered, I asked:

"When shall I see you again?"

"Soon!" came her answer"I shall let you know soon--when and whereOh, go, go!"She almost pushed me from her

When I had passed through the low doorway and locked and barred it behind that I should have had to shut her out like that; but Ifeared lest there should arise so suspicion if the doorshould be found openLater caot to the roof though the door had been shut, she would be able to getaway by the sae of some secret wayinto the CastleThe alternative was that she ave her strange powersI did notwish to pursue that train of thought, and so, after an effort, shut itout from my mind

When I got back to my room I locked the door behind ht just then--could not bear it

ThisI woke, a little later than usual, with a kind ofapprehension which I could not at once understandPresently, however,whenorder, I realizedthat I feared, half expected, that Aunt Janet would come to me in a worsestate of alarht experience ofmore than usual ferocity