But his hand was already on the door, and at a touch it appeared to
open almost of its own accord. He found himself looking from the dusk
of the outer whitewashed passage into a high, vaulted chapel, wherein
many dim lights glimmered. At the end there was a great altar of iron
standing square and solemn upon the platform on which it was set up,
and behind it, cut indistinctly against a greenish glow of light, and
imagined rather than clearly defined, the vast statue of a man with a
curiously high shaped head. Laurence could not distinguish any
features, so deep was the gloom, but the whole figure seemed to be
bending slightly forward, as if gloating upon that which was laid upon
the altar. But what struck Laurence with a sense of awe and terror was
the fact that as the greenish light behind waxed and waned, he could
see shadowy horns which projected from either side of the forehead,
and lower, short ears, pricked and shaggy like those of a he-goat.
Nearer the door, where he stood in the densest gloom, something moved
to and fro, and as his eyes grew accustomed to the darkness Laurence
could see that it was the bent figure of a woman.
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