"And that was your sister?"
"It was, sir."
"Report has not belied her—she is beautiful. But she looks rather pale, I thought. Has she bad health?"
"The best of health."
"Indeed! Perhaps the little disagreeable circumstance, which is made so much food for gossip in the neighbourhood, has affected her spirits?"
"It has."
"You allude to the supposed visit here of a vampyre?" said Charles, as he fixed his eyes upon Varney's face.
"Yes, I allude to the supposed appearance of a supposed vampyre in this family," said Sir Francis Varney, as he returned the earnest gaze of Charles, with such unshrinking assurance, that the young man was compelled, after about a minute, nearly to withdraw his own eyes.
"He will not be cowed," thought Charles. "Use has made him familiar to such cross-questioning."
It appeared now suddenly to occur to Henry that he had said something at Varney's own house which should have prevented him from coming to the Hall, and he now remarked,—