The String of Pearls (1850), p. 621

"Now, go on!"
"Well, after listening with my ear against the door for some time, I was certain that the sound was in the room; and I don't know how I screwed up courage enough to open the door very gently, and look in!"
"You did?"
"I did; and the very moment I did so, out went the light as clean as if you had taken your fingers and snuffed it out; but in the room there was a strange pale kind of light, that wasn't exactly like twilight, nor like moonlight, nor like any light that I ever saw, but you could see everything by it as plain as possible."
"Well&8212;well ?"
"The room was crammed full of people, all dressed, and looking at each other; and some of them were speaking; and upon all their clothes and faces there was blood, sometimes more, and sometimes less ; and all their eves looked like the eyes of the dead; and then one voice more loud than the rest said&8212;"
"All murdered!&8212;All murdered by Todd! The Lord have mercy upon his soul!'"
"Oh, gracious! What did you do?"
"I felt as if my breath was going from me, and my heart kept swelling and swelling till I thought it would burst, and then I dropped the candle; and the next time I come to my senses, I found myself lying on the bed in the second floor, with all my clothes on!"
"You dreamt it ?"
"Oh, no&8212;no. It's no use telling me that. I only wish I thought so, that's all."
"But, I tell you, you did."
"You may tell me as much as you like; but in the morning when I came down, there was the candle on the first-floor landing, just as I had dropped it. What do you think of that? Of course, after I drew out my head again from the first-floor front room I must have gone up stairs in the middle of my fright, and I dare say I fainted away, and didn't come to myself again till the morning."
"Oh, stuff ! Don't try to make me believe in your ghost stories. If&8212;if I thought it was true, I should bolt out of the house this minute."
"You would, really ?"
"Yes, to be sure; is a fellow to stay in a place with his hair continually standing on end, I should like to know ? Hardly. But it's all stuff. Take another drop of brandy ! Now I tell you what, if you have the courage to go with me, I will take the light now and go up to the first-floor, and have a good look all about it! W hat do you say to that, now? Will you do it?"
"I don't much mind."
"Only say the word, and I am quite ready."
"Well, I will. If so be they are there, they won't do us any harm, for they took no more notice of me than as if I had been nothing at all. But how you do shake!"
"I shake? You never were more mistaken in all your life. It's you that's shaking, and that makes you think I am. You are shaking, if you please; and if you don't like the job of going up stairs, only say so; I won't press it upon you!"
"Oh, I'll go."
"You are sure of it, now? You don't think it will make you ill? because I shouldn't like that. Come now, only say at once that you would rather not go, and there's an end to it."
"Yes, but I rather would."
"Come on, then&8212;come on. Courage, my friend, courage. Look at me, and be courageous. You don't see me shivering and shaking and shrinking. Keep up your heart, and come on!"
"You wretches," muttered Todd. "It shall go hard with me, now, but I