Ghostly and Mysterious

"Now then, Sybil, what is it?" he inquired.

"Oh, what is it! This place is full of devils!" she cried, shaking as
with an ague fit.

"My dear wife!" he said, in surprise and concern to see her shudder so
fearfully, to hear her speak so wildly.

"It is, I tell you, full of devils, Lyon!" she repeated with
chattering teeth.

There chanced to be a little wine in their stores. He went and poured
some into a glass and brought it to her, made her drink it.

"Now then, tell me what has thrown you into this state? What has
happened to terrify you so much? another dream, vision, apparition?
what?" he inquired, as he took from her hand the empty glass.

"Oh, no, no, no! no dream, no vision, nothing of that sort. It was too
dark to see anything, you know; but oh! it was something so ghastly and
horrible that I shall never, never get over it!" she exclaimed, while
shudder after shudder shook her frame.

"Tell me," he said soothingly.

"Oh, it was a damp girl!" she cried.

"A damp girl!" he echoed in amazement and alarm; for he almost feared
his dear wife was going crazy.

"Oh yes, a damp girl! A clay-cold, clammy, corpse-like form of a girl!"

"Where? when? what about her?"

"Oh, I woke up and felt her lying by my side! so close that she chilled
and oppressed me! I put out my hand, and she caught it in her deathly
fingers! I screamed, but she spoke to me! She was about to tell me
something, when she was suddenly snatched up and torn away!"