How long I lay
there I don't know, but when I looked again the face was farther out and
the whole figure seemed rising slowly. The moon was nearly down, I had
no lamp, and to be left in the dark with that awesome thing was more
than I could bear. Joke or earnest, I must end the panic, and bolting
out of my room I roused my neighbor. He told me I was mad or drunk, but
lit a lamp and returned with me, to find my horror only a heap of
clothes thrown on the table in such a way that, as the moon's pale light
shot it, it struck upon my black student's gown, with a white card lying
on it, and produced the effect of a coffin and plate. The face was a
crumpled handkerchief, and what seemed hair a brown muffler. As the moon
sank, these outlines changed and, incredible as it may seem, grew like a
face. My friend not having had the fright enjoyed the joke, and
'Coffins' was my sobriquet for a long while."
"You get worse and worse. Sir Jasper, do vary the horrors by a touch of
fun, or I shall run away," said Blanche, glancing over her shoulder
nervously.
"I'll do my best, and tell a story my uncle used to relate of his young
days. I forget the name of the place, but it was some little country
town famous among anglers.
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