squeeze
in wherever we could; and as my aunt and I were to have separate rooms
(my aunt liking a room to herself), it was natural that she should be
allotted the largest and most comfortable. Consequently, she was
domiciled in the wing where all the other visitors slept, whilst I was
forced to retreat to a passage on the other side of the house, where,
with the exception of my apartment, there were none other but
lumber-rooms. All went smoothly and happily, and nothing interrupted
the harmony of our visit, till the night before we returned home. We
had had supper--our meals were differently arranged in those days--and
Margaret and I were ascending the staircase on our way to bed, when
Alice, who had run upstairs ahead of us, met us with a scared face.

"Oh, do come to my room!" she cried. "Something has happened to Mary."
(Mary was one of the housemaids.)

We both accompanied her, and, on entering her room, found Mary seated
on a chair, sobbing hysterically. One only had to glance at the girl
to see that she was suffering from some very severe shock. Though
normally red-cheeked and placid, in short, a very healthy, stolid
creature, and the last person to be easily perturbed, she was now
without a vestige of colour, whilst the pupils of her eyes were
dilated with terror, and her entire body, from the crown of her head
to the soles of her feet, shook as if with ague. I was immeasurably
shocked to see her.

"Why, Mary," Margaret exclaimed, "whatever is the matter? What has
happened?"

"It's the candle, miss," the girl gasped, "the candle in Miss Trevor's
room. I can't put it out."

"You can't put it out, why, what nonsense!" Margaret said. "Are you
mad?"

"It is as true as I sit here, miss," Mary panted. "I put the candle on
the mantelpiece while I set the room to rights, and when I had
finished and came to blow it out, I couldn't. I blew, and blew, and
blew, but it hadn't any effect, and then I grew afraid, miss, horribly
afraid," and here she buried her face in her hands, and shuddered.
"I've never been frightened like this before, miss," she returned
slowly, "and I've come away and left the candle burning."

"How absurd of you," Margaret scolded. "We must go and put it out at
once. I have a good mind to make you come with us, Mary--but there!
Stay where you are, and for goodness' sake stop crying, or every one
in the house will hear you."

So saying, Margaret hurried off,--Alice and I accompanying her,--and