A young couple, Elinor and ^Gilbert^ [Robert] Hinton, and their child Donald, have taken an old, gambrelled house in the town of Arkham, renowned for witchcraft. Gilbert, a writer, is collecting some of the old local legends for a book.

One Abigail Coddington, a woman of dubious age and curious, half-sinister personality, is among their neighbors. They encounter her frequently, and she sometimes calls upon them; but, strangely, they are able to learn nothing concerning her. She comes and goes with the furtiveness and elusiveness of a phantom. She is palpably attracted by Hinton, who dislikes her. Elinor is more and more disturbed by this, though obviously without reason for jealousy. She begins to be troubled by weird, recurrent nightmares, in which she feels that someone or something is pushing her from her bed into a vast grey emptiness. A cold wind seems to accompany these pushings, and she hears whispers and mutters full of icy menace, but never quite articulated, in a voice that suggests that of the strange woman Abigail. She awakens clutching the bedcovers, haunted by the thought of this mysterious woman.

^xxx^ xxx was added by Smith.
[xxx] xxx was deleted by Smith.