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And much is known about Juliette’s state of mind in this period, because although she never kept a proper journal, at this stage there was a record of her internal world. Juliette had begun to keep a ‘dream diary’. This means that although her thoughts may not be known, her subconscious is there for all to see.

Why, though, had she begun to make this record? Perhaps the best way to understand her reasoning is by reading the early entries in the log, a harder task than one might imagine as for much of it she used her own rather obscure form of shorthand. It began, it seems, on the third day of August. That night, Juliette woke up in the middle of the night to smell ‘a peculiar scent in the air, like the burning of grease’. Her room was lit only by the moon outside, and Anji, in the bed on the opposite side of the room, was still asleep. Juliette climbed out of bed, and ‘driven by some impulse not identified’ crept downstairs, later noting that she couldn’t even hear the sound of her own footsteps.

It has to be remembered that this was recorded in her dream diary, so it shouldn’t be taken on face value. Certainly, what happened next has the feel of a vision. Juliette arrived in the salon, to find that the walls had been curiously redecorated. There were banners and rosettes across the walls, covering every surface: they’re described as being just like the decorations which had adorned the March ball, but this time in pure black instead of red. Juliette spent some time trying to get her bearings, wondering what had happened here, before she noticed the black-clad figure standing before her in the middle of the floor.

It was a woman but she was dressed darkly and the black of her dress was no diff’rent from the black of the wall. She stood in high boots and I think valvet [sic] gloves but she wore over her head a [Juliette’s symbol here is unclear] so her face could not be seen. I started at seeing her for I had seen nothing of her because of her dark aspect. She was watching me but in such a way that I thought she might at any time draw a weapon for she had that look of a soldier about her.

Without over-analysing this, it’s important to note that ‘the look of a soldier about her’ suggests the way Juliette often described Scarlette.

The woman spoke to me although I could not afterwards remember her voice. She told me that I must pay particular attention to my visions for I had reached the point where they would be an education. I was informed that this House was both red and black in its colours and I had passed through its red nature by the bleeding that had begun for me in January. It was now time for me to understand its black nature and this is why my visions were of importance.

I did not understand this and said so but the woman told me to return to bed. I did this and found I fell asleep again as soon as I returned.

Needless to say, when Juliette awoke the next morning there was no sign downstairs of the previous night’s black decorations.

A woman all in black: the dark side to Scarlette’s red, perhaps? A modern psychologist might interpret the strange figure as Juliette’s subconscious reaction to the Mistress of the House. She seems to have confided the dream to at least one friend, who recommended that she write down all her dreams from that point on.

Before this narrative becomes bogged down in dream-imagery, it’s best to consider one detail. By August 3, Scarlette had returned to the House from France. It’s worth mentioning this for one reason: despite its striking imagery, over the following weeks Juliette failed to dream of the black woman again (in fact, the black woman wouldn’t reappear until the very end of the month). Almost as if the ‘dream’ of the black room wasn’t part of her usual dreaming at all. And note that curious detail, the fact that Juliette was awoken by the smell of smoke.

In many forms of witchcraft, it’s traditional for a young member of the coven to enter a darkened place and undergo initiation at the hands of a mysterious black-clad figure, often