title: Lucifer Ascending: The Occult in Folklore and Popular Culture
author:  Bill Ellis 
description: "A welcome counterbalance to alarmist tales of occult influence."<i>Books &amp; Culture</i>
zlib_text: ![](images/00001.jpg)
  
  
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  The Evil Guest
  
  
  This page copyright © 2003 Blackmask Online.
  
  
  
  
  
  # The Evil Guest
  
  
  ### J. Sheridan Le Fanu
  
  
  This page copyright © 2003 Blackmask Online.
  
  
  http://www.blackmask.com  
    
  
      
  
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  The Evil Guest
  
  
  By J. Sheridan LeFanu
  
  
  1895
  
  
  
  
  
  “When Lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth Sin: and Sin, when it
  
  
  is finished, bringeth forth Death.”
  
  
  
  
  
  About sixty years ago, and somewhat more than twenty miles from the
  
  
  ancient town of Chester, in a southward direction, there stood a large,
  
  
  and, even then, an old-fashioned mansion-house. It lay in the midst of
  
  
  a demesne of considerable extent, and richly wooded with venerable
  
  
  timber; but, apart from the somber majesty of these giant groups, and
  
  
  the varieties of the undulating ground on which they stood, there was
  
  
  little that could be deemed attractive in 