This was assented to, and my friend was called into the parlour, looking
pale and trembling, as if she fancied herself guilty of the pain about
to be inflicted on me. She remained stationary in front of me, with a
look of sweet commiseration in her face, but without uttering a word. Once or twice I thought she was going to speak, but she checked herself,
and then I noticed a struggle going on within her, as if she would have
said, "Ought I not to prevent this operation, and openly confess that
what my friend has seen, is not an hallucination, but a reality; a
phenomenon belonging to my constitution? But, no; I dare not." This was how I read the expression of her face. However, the operation
passed over with far less pain than I had expected, when, oh, wonderful! on looking up again at the face of my friend, who was standing
motionless as a statue, I perceived once more her double, not this time
as usual, standing behind her and imitating her attitude, but pacing up
and down the room with rapid steps and wringing her hands, as if in
despair. Feeling somewhat weak from loss of blood, I forbore to cry out, but my
wild looks attracted the attention of my father and the doctor to the
spot my eyes were fixed upon, when, following the direction of my eyes,
both suddenly started in extreme terror, such as I have never seen
expressed before or since upon the faces of any two of the stronger sex. The doctor halted in tying on the bandage, and trembled like an aspen,
while my father staggered and fell against the wall. For some minutes
not a word was spoken, when my friend probably guessing the cause of our
alarm, suddenly turned her head in the direction of their gaze, when the
apparition instantly vanished. Each looked at the other, and the doctor
declared that such a case had never before occurred in all his
experience, nor would he have believed it had he had other testimony
than that of his own eyes. My friend then, her eyes filled with tears, begged of us all present to
keep the matter a secret, and not to publish it throughout the village. Upon being questioned concerning the phenomenon, it appeared that what
we had all seen was a reality, having as she alleged been seen by others
before. She said that she was not conscious of its presence, save by the
looks of consternation she saw depicted on the faces of others; that she
had no control over the apparition, as it would appear and disappear
without her knowledge, and that she had never seen it herself but
once--in the looking-glass--when it caused her such a preternatural
horror that she never afterwards used a looking-glass without a
shudder. This phenomenon in her nature, moreover, made her very unhappy, as on
this account people used to shun her, considering the apparition as the
work of the Evil One, and deeming her guilty of some fearful crime, for
such a judgment ever to be permitted to persecute her. The doctor and my father, their first surprise once over, attempted to
console her, assuring her that they neither of them conceived her
capable of anything like a crime, recommending her to keep quiet and not
to worry herself on that account. The doctor, to console her, further promised to keep her secret; but, in
spite of his earnest assurances that he would not breathe a word of it
to mortal man, a pamphlet appeared shortly afterwards in the doctor's
own name, announcing a new form of contagious nervous disease, in which
the visual organs of a healthy individual might become so affected by
contact with a person suffering from hallucinations as to cause him to
see or fancy he sees the object reflected on the retina of the patient
by his diseased imagination. An instance of this was given as having
occurred in the village, and though the names of the parties concerned
were not given in full, the neighbours had no doubt as to whom was meant
by C---- F----. The pamphlet made some stir at the time, and poor Claribel, my bashful
and retiring friend, found herself made the lion of the season, and
pestered past all endurance by anxious inquiries and impertinent visits
from strangers, who came from far, hoping to have their curiosity
gratified by a re-appearance of the spectre. If such was their object in
calling, and it undoubtedly was, they one and all of them went away
terribly disappointed, for not in one single case did the apparition
vouchsafe to manifest itself. Nevertheless, these continued visits from strangers to one so shy and
retired as my friend, made her excessively nervous, and were beginning
to undermine her health, which, the doctor perceiving, he gave instant
orders that she should receive no visits but those of her most intimate
friends. Visitors still continued to call for some little time afterwards, but
were refused admittance on the plea of my friend's delicate health, and
their visits grew fewer and farther between, till at length they ceased
altogether, and Claribel's health began to improve. As everything has an end, even the gossip of a little village, so in
time people grew tired, both of hearing or retailing what they had heard
and retailed so often before, till at length nobody believed a word
about the apparition; and because they could not explain the cause of
the phenomenon, hushed their minds to sleep by calling it imposture,
delusion, ignorant credulity, and the like. The ghost had never appeared to them or to those who had taken so much
trouble as to come from afar on purpose to see it, and the deduction was
that as the spirit had refused to manifest itself to such respectable
people as these, it was not likely that it had ever vouchsafed to make
its appearance to anyone, so the affair was settled. Time rolled on, and both my friend and I were promoted from pupils to
teachers in our school. The gossip of the village had long ceased; in
fact, Claribel's spiritual tormentor had discontinued its visits now for
so long that she began to hope that they had ceased for ever. Claribel was now fast ripening into womanhood, and found herself no
longer shunned and whispered about as a person guilty of some horrible
crime which had called down the just vengeance of Heaven upon her, but
passed by like any other, without allusion to the past; nay, more, she
began to be courted by people in general, being known as a young woman
of most excellent character. Being of an extremely prepossessing
appearance, it was natural that she should be made a mark for all the
young men of the village to discharge their amorous glances at, and she
soon found herself surrounded by a crowd of swains who talked soft
nonsense to her, and who would fain make her believe that they were
dying with love for her. Claribel, however, turned a deaf ear to them all.