e's arm in terror; for through an
open door-way of the second story, to which she was ascending with her
companion, she saw in the dusk a shapeless figure, moving strangely
hither and thither, up and down. Her tone was by no means confident as,
pointing towards it with her finger, she asked the doctor:

"What is that?"

The physician had paused with her, and seeing the strange object to
which the burgomaster's wife pointed, recoiled a step himself. But
the cool-headed man quickly perceived the real nature of the ghostly
apparition, and leading Maria forward exclaimed smiling:

"What in the world are you doing there on the floor, Father Damianus?"

"I am scouring the boards," replied the priest quietly.

"Right is right," cried the doctor indignantly. "You are too good for
maid-servant's work, Father Damianus, especially when there is plenty
of money without an owner here in the house, and we can find as many
scrubbing-women as we want to-morrow."

"But not to-day, doctor; and the young lady won't stay in yonder room
any longer. You ordered her to go to sleep yourself, and Sister Gonzaga
says she won't close her eyes so long as she is next door to the
corpse."

"Then Van Hout's men ought to have carried her on her bed into the old
lady's beautiful sitting-room."

"That's sealed, and so are all the other handsome chambers on this
story. The men were obliging and tried to find scrub-women, but the poor
things are afraid of the plague."

"Such rumors grow like wire-grass," cried the doctor. "Nobody sows it,
yet who can uproot it when it is once here?"

"Neither you nor I," replied the priest. "The young lady must be brought
into this room at once; but it looked neglected, so I've just set it to
rights. It will do the invalid good, and the exercise can't hurt me."
With these words Father Damianus rose, and seeing Maria, said:

"You have brought a new nurse? That's right. I need not praise Sister
Gonzaga, for you know her; but I assure you Fraulein Henrica won't allow
her to remain with her long, and I shall leave this house as soon as the
funeral is over."

"You have done your duty; but what does this news about the Sister
mean?" cried the physician angrily. "I'd rather have your old Gonzaga
with her burnt fingers than--what has happened?"

The priest approached and, hastily casting a side glance at the
burgomaster's wife, exclaimed:

"She speaks through her nose, and Fraulein Henrica said just now it made