No answer.
I advanced into the room with my candle and set it on the table, then I struck a match and lit two more of the candles in the sconces.
The room was empty!
This placed me rather in a dilemma. I had no further means of announcing my presence; I could only wait.
I sat down by the fire and began to look around.
Comfortable, even luxurious as the room was with its abundance of valuable knick-knacks and pictures, it had an eerie look about it. The eyes of the figures in the pictures seemed following me about.
I got up and lit two more of the candles in the sconces on the walls. Then I returned to my seat, made up the fire, and waited the course of events.
I waited thus quite a quarter of an hour, during which nothing occurred, and then I heard sounds which almost made me jump from my chair.
The first was a long, gasping breath, followed after an interval by a groan, a long wailing groan as of one in the deepest suffering.
I immediately rose from my chair, and caught a glimpse of my white face as I did so in the looking-glass over the mantelpiece.