w-footed chairs
and tables were in keeping with the sober dignity of the ancient mansion.
The old "hangings" were yet preserved in the chambers, faded, but still
showing their rich patterns,--properly entitled to their name, for they
were literally hung upon flat wooden frames like trellis-work, which
again were secured to the naked partitions.

There were portraits of different date on the walls of the various
apartments, old painted coats-of-arms, bevel-edged mirrors, and in one
sleeping-room a glass case of wax-work flowers and spangly symbols, with
a legend signifying that E. M. (supposed to be Elizabeth Mascarene)
wished not to be "forgot"

"When I am dead and lay'd in dust
And all my bones are"--

Poor E. M.! Poor everybody that sighs for earthly remembrance in a
planet with a core of fire and a crust of fossils!

Such was the Dudley mansion-house,--for it kept its ancient name in spite
of the change in the line of descent. Its spacious apartments looked
dreary and desolate; for here Dudley Venner and his daughter dwelt by
themselves, with such servants only as their quiet mode of life required.
He almost lived in his library, the western room on the ground-floor.
Its window looked upon a small plat of green, in the midst of which was a
single grave marked by a plain marble slab. Except this room, and the
chamber where he slept, and the servants' wing, the rest of the house was
all Elsie's. She was always a restless, wandering child from her early
years, and would have her little bed moved from one chamber to
another,--flitting round as the fancy took her. Sometimes she would drag
a mat and a pillow into one of the great empty rooms, and, wrapping
herself in a shawl, coil up and go to sleep in a corner. Nothing
frightened her; the "haunted" chamber, with the torn hangings that
flapped like wings when there was air stirring, was one of her favorite
retreats. She had been a very hard creature to manage. Her father could
influence, but not govern her. Old Sophy, born of a slave mother in the
house, could do more with her than anybody, knowing her by long
instinctive study. The other servants were afraid of her. Her father had
sent for governesses, but none of them ever stayed long. She made them
nervous; one of them had a strange fit of sickness; not one of them ever
came back to the house to see her. A young Spanish woman who taught her
dancing succeeded best with her, for she had a