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"I don't know what there was about that face, Mr. Holmes, but it seemed to send a chill right down my back.

I was some little way off, so that I could not make out the features, but there was something unnatural and inhuman about the face.

That was the impression that I had, and I moved quickly forwards to get a nearer view of the person who was watching me.

But as I did so the face suddenly disappeared, so suddenly that it seemed to have been plucked away into the darkness of the room.

I stood for five minutes thinking the business over, and trying to analyze my impressions.

I could not tell if the face were that of a man or a woman.

It had been too far from me for that.

But its color was what had impressed me most.

It was of a livid chalky white, and with something set and rigid about it which was shockingly unnatural.

So disturbed was I that I determined to see a little more of the new inmates of the cottage.

I approached and knocked at the door, which was instantly opened by a tall, gaunt woman with a harsh, forbidding face.

"'What may you be wantin'?' she asked, in a Northern accent.

"'I am your neighbor over yonder,' said I, nodding towards my house. 'I see that you have only just moved in, so I thought that if I could be of any help to you in any-'

"'Ay, we'll just ask ye when we want ye,' said she, and shut the door in my face.

Annoyed at the churlish rebuff, I turned my back and walked home.

All evening, though I tried to think of other things, my mind would still turn to the apparition at the window and the rudeness of the woman.

I determined to say nothing about the former to my wife, for she is a nervous, highly strung woman, and I had no wish that she would share the unpleasant impression which had been produced upon myself.

I remarked to her, however, before I fell asleep, that the cottage was now occupied, to which she returned no reply.

"I am usually an extremely sound sleeper.

It has been a standing jest in the family that nothing could ever wake me during the night.

And yet somehow on that particular night, whether it may have been the slight excitement produced by my little adventure or not I know not, but I slept much more lightly than usual.

Half in my dreams I was dimly conscious that something was going on in the room, and gradually became aware that my wife had dressed herself and was slipping on her mantle and her bonnet.

My lips were parted to murmur out some sleepy words of surprise or remonstrance at this untimely preparation, when suddenly my half-opened eyes fell upon her face, illuminated by the candle-light, and astonishment held me dumb.

She wore an expression such as I had never seen before-such as I should have thought her incapable of assuming.

She was deadly pale and breathing fast, glancing furtively towards the bed as she fastened her mantle, to see if she had disturbed me.

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