Explore "The Maid of the Mill" by Josephine Daskam Bacon on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
"So it was true. There were such things. But at least his limbs were free, and to his joy he discovered that he was not afraid. No; he had a dull feeling of coming disaster, but no fear. She was a young woman, with big shadowy eyes and a strange mouth. She had on a long, loose white nightgown, open at the throat, and she carried a little lamp. 'Go! ' he saw in her eyes as plainly as if she said it. He looked about the room -- he could have sworn it was changed. It had the air of a woman's room, that she is living in and keeps her things in. He had no right there -- none. He should have gone. But he was proud because he wasn't afraid, and he answered her with his eyes that he would not go. A tired, puzzled look came into her face, a kind of frown, and she leaned over the footboard and begged him with those big dark eyes, begged him hard to go. He had his chance -- oh, yes, the fool had his chance!
"But he was so proud that he could master her, master a returned soul -- for lovely as she was, he knew she wasn't human -- that he only set his teeth and started up to come nearer her. But she raised her hand and he fell back, feeling queer and drowsy. Then she came to the edge of the bed and sat down and took from behind her a soft red silk sash and drew it across his face. A sweet, languid feeling stole over him; the bed seemed like a cloud of down, her sash smelled like spice and sandalwood in a warm wind. He felt he was being drugged and weakened, and he tried to stumble up, but the soft silk smothered him, and he became almost unconscious.