ed Sheila, with a
somewhat nervous giggle and a second furtive glance behind her, as she
added: "Better hurry up, now; ye've only five minutes before dinner is
announced, ye see."

Dainty quickly pinned on a great bunch of the fragrant roses, and
hurried down to the parlor, where she found the others waiting, Mrs.
Ellsworth alone in an easy-chair, Olive and Love at the piano with Ela,
who was playing the accompaniment for a sentimental song that Olive sang
while Love turned the leaves.

At dinner the hostess managed to separate Dainty and Love as widely as
possible, and when they left the table, she pursued the same course,
leading Dainty to a distant seat, saying:

"Come and sit by me, dear. I have so many questions to ask you about
your home and your mother; and I will tell you some interesting things
about your papa's boyhood."

Her step-son, pleased at her seeming interest in his beautiful love, and
unwilling to interrupt the flow of their mutual confidences, permitted
the two other girls to monopolize him the whole evening; so that when
bed-time arrived, he had not had the chance of a single word, except the
formal good-night.

He went out then to smoke a cigar, and secretly deprecate Mrs.
Ellsworth's selfishness in keeping such a lovely girl to herself all the
evening, and the girls went upstairs to their rooms along the dimly
lighted corridor.

Dainty slipped her hand through Ela's arm, whispering, nervously:

"Are your rooms close to mine, Ela?"

"No; mine and Olive's are down there at the end of the corridor,
adjoining, and there are only vacant rooms next you."

"But that can not be, Ela, for I heard some one in the room next mine
coughing horribly while I was dressing; but the maid denied that any one
was in there, and muttered something about the old monk. What could she
have meant?"

She fancied that Ela shuddered, and her eyes dilated with alarm as she
returned:

"Good heavens! is that old wretch going to haunt us? Why, Dainty, don't
you know about the family ghost of Ellsworth?--the wicked old monk, a
relative of the family, who murdered one of the brotherhood, and fled to
his old home, hiding himself in a dungeon here till he died of
consumption. Well, it is said that he haunts the old wing of Ellsworth,
and that whenever his awful, discordant cough is heard it forebodes evil
to the hearer. But here is your door. Good-night!"--with a mocking
laugh.

Dainty had never slept away from her m