e girl disappeared, a slender, youthful figure in the plain black gown,
yet her step, though it was not slow, had none of the lithsomeness of
youth. She seemed to have lost all joy of life, though she could scarcely
have been more than twenty-two or three.

"Another mystery!" Virginia said in a low voice. "How comes she to be
English? Is she the girl they were talking about down below, or is she a
companion?"

"She looks like a banished princess," said Trent. "I never saw such
wonderful eyes. Deep as a well, reflecting a night of stars."

Lady Gardiner's lips tightened a little. She was rather vain of her eyes.
"I think the girl would appear a very ordinary young person," she
remarked, "if one saw her anywhere but here."

George lifted her down from the horse without answering, but Virginia did
not wait to be helped. She sprang to the ground, and by the time that
George had tethered the horses an old man in a faded livery came limping
out from the side door through which the girl in black had lately
disappeared.

Almost crippled with rheumatism, he had still all the dignity of a
trusted servant of an ancient house, and his old eyes seemed gravely to
defy these prosperous young people to criticize his threadbare clothing.

"Mademoiselle" had desired him to take monsieur and mesdames over the
chateau, he politely announced in French, and went on to beg that they
would give themselves the trouble of being conducted to the door at the
front, that they might go in by the great hall. He also regretted that
the visitors had not arrived earlier in the day, as the rooms could not
be seen at their best advantage so near to sunset.

Virginia's heart began to beat oddly as she entered the house. She had
still the feeling of having left realities behind and strayed into
dreamland; but with the opening of the heavy door it seemed to her that
the dream was about to change into a vision which would mean something
for her future.

Of course it was all nonsense, she told herself, as the old man led them
across the shadowy, tapestry-hung hall, and from one huge, dim,
wainscotted or frescoed room to another; yet always, as they approached a
doorway, she caught herself thinking--"Now a strange thing is going to
happen."

"This is the state drawing-room; this is the library; this is the chapel;
this is the bride's suite," the servant announced laconically. But though
the castle was evidently very ancient and must have a private his