The man's appearance
became familiar to me, and rather "haunted"
me.
'One evening I was passing through this room to
my bedroom, with a lamp--there is no gas in Me-
ridian. I stopped as usual before the portrait, which
seemed in the lamplight to have a new expression,
not easily named, but distinctly uncanny. It inter-
ested but did not disturb me. I moved the lamp from
one side to the other and observed the effects of the
altered light. While so engaged I felt an impulse to
turn round. As I did so I saw a man moving across
the room directly toward me! As soon as he came
near enough for the lamplight to illuminate the face
I saw that it was Dr. Mannering himself; it was
as if the portrait were walking!
'"I beg your pardon," I said, somewhat coldly,
"but if you knocked I did not hear."
'He passed me, within an arm's length, lifted his
right forefinger, as in warning, and without a word
went on out of the room, though I observed his
exit no more than I had observed his entrance.
'Of course, I need not tell you that this was what
you will call a hallucination and I call an appari-
tion. That room had only two doors, of which one
was locked; the other led into a bedroom, from
which there was no exit. My feeling on realizing this
is not an important part of the incident.
'Doubtless this seems to you a very commonplace
"ghost story"--one constructed on the regular
lines laid down by the old masters of the art.
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