heek on
it as the only thing that came from home, and burst into a flood of
despairing tears.

In the midst, there fell on her ears a low strain of melancholy music
rising and falling like the wailing of mournful spirits. She sprang to
her feet and stood listening with dilated eyes; then, as a louder note
reached her, in terror uncontrollable, she caught up her candle, rushed
down the stairs like a wild bird, and stood panting before Mrs. Aylward,
who had a big Bible open on the table before her.

"Oh, ma'am," she cried, between her panting sobs, "I can't stay there! I
shall die!"

"What means this, madam?" said Mrs. Aylward, stiffly, making the word
sound much like "foolish child."

"The--the music!" she managed faintly to utter, falling again into the
friendly chair.

"The music?" said Mrs. Aylward, considering; then with a shade of polite
contempt, "O! Jumbo's fiddle! I did not know it could be heard in your
room, but no doubt the windows below are open."

"Is Jumbo that black man?" asked Aurelia, shuddering; for negro
servants, though the fashion in town, had not penetrated into the west.

"Mr. Belamour's blackamoor. He often plays to him half the night."

"Oh!" with another quivering sound of alarm; "is Mr. Belamour the
gentleman in the dark?"

"Even so, madam, but you need have no fears. He keeps his room and
admits no one, though he sometimes walks out by night. You will only
have to keep the children from a noise making near his apartments. Good
night, madam."

"Oh, pray, if I do not disturb you, would you be pleased to let me stay
till you have finished your chapter; I might not be so frightened then."

In common humanity Mrs. Aylward could not refuse, and Aurelia sat
silently grasping the arms of her chair, and trying to derive all the
comfort she could from the presence of a Bible and a good woman. Her
nerves were, in fact, calmed by the interval, and when Mrs. Aylward
took off her spectacles and shut up her book, it had become possible to
endure the terrors of the lonely chamber.

CHAPTER VIII. THE ENCHANTED CASTLE.

A little she began to lose her fear.--MORRIS.

Aurelia slept till she was wakened by a bounce at the door, and the
rattling of the lock, but it was a little child's voice that was crying,
"I will! I will! I will go in and seem by cousin!"

Then came Mrs. Aylward's severe voice: "No, miss, you are not to waken
your cousin. Come away. Where is that slut, Jenny?"