"I don't know; but I am frightened."
"Of what?"
"I don't know."
Joubert blew out the light and left the room, and I lay looking at the shadows the furniture made on the wall by the dim glimmer of the nightlight.
The door leading to my father's room was open. This did not give me any comfort—rather the reverse; for the next room was in darkness, and I could not help imagining faces peeping at me from the darkness.
When frightened at night like this, I generally told myself fairy tales to keep away the terrors.
I tried this to-night with a bad result, for the attempt instantly brought up Vogel and the old woman who lived in the wood.
Now, there was something in this fairy tale that my heart knew to be evil and malign. What this something was I could not tell, but it was there, and the story did not bring me any peace.
The clock in the turret struck ten, and I saw vividly the Man in Armour up there alone in the dark, wheeling to his work.