'
'It _is_ midnight,' answered the woman; 'I came here because I heard
my husband call me three times distinctly, "Sophia, Sophia, Sophia!"
just like that.'
'Nonsense, madam,' I said, with an asperity I seldom use where the
fair sex is concerned; but I began to see that this hysterical
creature was going to be in the way during a research that called for
coolness and calmness. I was sorry I had invited her to come.
'Nonsense, madam, you have been dreaming.'
'Indeed, Monsieur Valmont, I have not. I have not even been asleep,
and I heard the words quite plainly. You must not think I am either
mad or superstitious.'
I thought she was both, and next moment she gave further evidence of
it, running suddenly forward, and clutching me by the arm.
'Listen! listen!' she whispered. 'You hear nothing?'
'Nonsense!' I cried again, almost roughly for my patience was at an
end, and I wished to go on with my inquiry undisturbed.
'Hist, hist!' she whispered; 'listen!' holding up her finger. We both
stood like statues, and suddenly I felt that curious creeping of the
scalp which shows that even the most civilised among us have not yet
eliminated superstitious fear. In the tense silence I heard someone
slowly coming up the stair; I heard the halting step of a lame man.
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