What were my emotions when, underneath the staircase lamp, shining with wet as if he had never been dry since our last meeting, stood the mysterious Being whom I had encountered on the steamboat in a thunderstorm, two years before! His prediction rushed upon my mind, and I turned faint.
‘I said I’d do it,’ he observed, in a hollow voice, ‘and I have done it. May I come in?’
‘Misguided creature, what have you done?’ I returned.
‘I’ll let you know,’ was his reply, ‘if you’ll let me in.’
Could it be murder that he had done? And had he been so successful that he wanted to do it again, at my expense?
I hesitated.
‘May I come in?’ said he.
I inclined my head, with as much presence of mind as I could command, and he followed me into my chambers. There, I saw that the lower part of his face was tied up, in what is commonly called a Belcher handkerchief. He slowly removed this bandage, and exposed to view a long dark beard, curling over his upper lip, twisting about the corners of his mouth, and hanging down upon his breast.
‘What is this?’ I exclaimed involuntarily, ‘and what have you become?’
‘I am the Ghost of Art!’ said he.