Moonlight, in a familiar room, falling so white
upon the carpet, and showing all its figures so distinctly, -- making every
object so minutely visible, yet so unlike a morning or noontide visibility, --
is a medium the most suitable for a romance-writer to get acquainted with his
illusive guests. […] Thus, therefore, the floor of our familiar room has become
a neutral territory, somewhere between the real world and fairy-land, where the
Actual and the Imaginary may meet, and each imbue itself with the nature of the
other.
