And then the horses cowered lower and lower, and moaned in terror as men do in pain. Even the madness of fright was not to them, so that they could break away. I feared for my dear Madam Mina when these weird figures drew near and circled round. I looked at her, but she sat calm, and smiled at me; when I would have stepped to the fire to replenish it, she caught me and held me back, and whispered, like a voice that one hears in a dream, so low it was:⁠—

“No! No! Do not go without. Here you are safe!” I turned to her, and looking in her eyes, said:⁠—

“But you? It is for you that I fear!” whereat she laughed⁠—a laugh, low and unreal, and said:⁠—