The Dreadful Bag

The count turned to look in my face attentively and said in a soft whisper, Yes, I too can love. You yourselves can tell it from the past, is it not so? Well now I promise that when I am done with him you shall kiss him at your will. But as I looked they disappeared, and with them the dreadful bag. There was no dawn near them and they could not have passed me without my noticing. They seemed to fade into the rays of the moonlight and pass out through the window before they entirely faded away. Then the horror overcame me, and I sank down unconscious. I awoke in my own bed.