"I don't know what there was about that face, Mr. Holmes, but it seemed to send a chill right down my back.
I was some little way off, so that I could not make out the features, but there was something unnatural and inhuman about the face.
That was the impression that I had, and I moved quickly forwards to get a nearer view of the person who was watching me.
But as I did so the face suddenly disappeared, so suddenly that it seemed to have been plucked away into the darkness of the room.
I stood for five minutes thinking the business over, and trying to analyze my impressions.
I could not tell if the face were that of a man or a woman.
It had been too far from me for that.
But its color was what had impressed me most.
It was of a livid chalky white, and with something set and rigid about it which was shockingly unnatural.
So disturbed was I that I determined to see a little more of the new inmates of the cottage.