she could
not have betrayed more dire distress. She was a sensible and faithful
servant, one not given to flights of fancy, and Mr. Carlyle gazed at her
in very amazement.

"Joyce, what is this?" he asked, bending down and speaking kindly.

"Oh, my dear master! Heaven have mercy upon us all!" was the
inexplicable answer.

"Joyce I ask you what is this?"

She made no reply. She rose up shaking; and, taking Archie's hand,
slowly proceeded toward the upper stairs, low moans breaking from her,
and the boy's naked feet pattering on the carpet.

"What can ail her?" whispered Barbara, following Joyce with her eyes.
"What did she mean about a spectre?"

"She must have been reading a ghost-book," said Carlyle. "Wilson's folly
has turned the house topsy-turvy. Make your haste, Barbara."

Spring waned. Summer came, and would soon be waning, too, for the hot
days of July were now in. What had the months brought forth, since the
election of Mr. Carlyle in April? Be you very sure they had not been
without their events.

Mr. Justice Hare's illness had turned out to be a stroke of paralysis.
People cannot act with unnatural harshness toward a child, and then
discover they have been in the wrong, with impunity. Thus it proved with
Mr. Justice Hare. He was recovering, but would never again be the man
he had been. The fright, when Jasper had gone to tell of his illness at
East Lynne, and was mistaken for fire, had done nobody any damage, save
William and Joyce. William had caught a cold, which brought increased
malady to the lungs; and Joyce seemed to have caught _fear_. She went
about, more like one in a dream than awake, would be buried in a reverie
for an hour at a time, and if suddenly spoken to, would start and
shiver.

Mr. Carlyle and his wife departed for London immediately that Mr. Hare
was pronounced out of danger; which was in about a week from the time of
his seizure. William accompanied them, partly for the benefit of London
advice, partly that Mr. Carlyle would not be parted from him. Joyce
went, in attendance with some of the servants.

They found London ringing with the news of Sir Francis Levison's arrest.
London could not understand it; and the most wild and improbable tales
were in circulation. The season was at its height; the excitement in
proportion; it was more than a nine days' wonder. On the very evening of
their arrival a lady, young and beautiful, was shown in to the presence
of Mr. and Mrs. Car