"While such pleasing reflections were stealing over my mind, and
gradually lulling me to slumber, I was suddenly aroused by a
sound like that of the rustling of a silken gown, and the tapping
of a pair of high-heeled shoes, as if a woman were walking in the
apartment. Ere I could draw the curtain to see what the matter
was, the figure of a little woman passed between the bed and the
fire. The back of this form was turned to me, and I could
observe, from the shoulders and neck, it was that of an old
woman, whose dress was an old-fashioned gown, which I think
ladies call a sacque--that is, a sort of robe completely loose in
the body, but gathered into broad plaits upon the neck and
shoulders, which fall down to the ground, and terminate in a
species of train.
"I thought the intrusion singular enough, but never harboured for
a moment the idea that what I saw was anything more than the
mortal form of some old woman about the establishment, who had a
fancy to dress like her grandmother, and who, having perhaps (as
your lordship mentioned that you were rather straitened for room)
been dislodged from her chamber for my accommodation, had
forgotten the circumstance, and returned by twelve to her old
haunt.
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