The lady may accept the escort, or the lady may ‘give him the mitten.’

I could cite you more than one hundred incidents corroborating the truth, that people have a very confused idea when their senses are tied up by fear and anxiety. As soon as cool reflection gives way to the horrors of a disordered fancy, we are but too apt to create phantoms and spectres all around us, we do not see what really exists, but what we fear to behold.

Lawrence Flammenberg, The Necromancer; or, The Tale of the Black Forest

Horrid to behold did now a second phantom appear before our gazing looks, staggering slowly towards us, and leaving a numerous retinue on the staircase; the garment of the spectre was stained with blood, the skull fractured, the eyes like two portentous comets!

Lawrence Flammenberg, The Necromancer; or, The Tale of the Black Forest

There is one thing to be said for Mondays. They take the mind off everything else.

William Sloane, To Walk the Night