Then the Count turned, after looking at my face attentively, and said in a
soft whisper, "Yes, I too can love. You yourselves can tell it from the
past. Is it not so? Well, now I promise you that when I am done with him you
shall kiss him at your will. Now go! Go! I must awaken him, for there is work
to be done."
"Are we to have nothing tonight?"said one of them, with a low
laugh, as she pointed to the bag which he had thrown upon the floor, and which
moved as though there were some living thing within it. For answer he nodded
his head. One of the women jumped forward and opened it. If my ears did not
deceive me there was a gasp and a low wail, as of a half smothered child. The
women closed round, whilst I was aghast with horror. But as I looked, they
disappeared, and with them the dreadful bag. There was no door near them, and
they could not have passed me without my noticing. They simply seemed to fade
into the rays of the moonlight and pass out through the window, for I could see
outside the dim, shadowy forms for a moment before they entirely faded away.
Then the horror overcame me, and I sank down unconscious.