she
should have a ball on her wedding day. Her betrothed, Secretary
Winther, was also a good dancer, and the two young people combated the
mother's prejudice against the hall and laughed at her fear of the
sealed room. They thought it would be wiser to appear to ignore the
stupid legend altogether, and thus to force the world to forget it. In
spite of secret misgivings Madame Wolff yielded to their arguments.
And for the first time in many years the merry strains of dance music
were heard in the great hall that lay next the mysterious sealed
chamber.

The bridal couple, as well as the wedding guests, were in the gayest
mood, and the ball was an undoubted success. The dancing was
interrupted for an hour while supper was served in an adjoining room.
After the repast the guests returned to the hall, and it was several
hours more before the last dance was called. The season was early
autumn and the weather still balmy. The windows had been opened to
freshen the air. But the walls retained their dampness and suddenly
the dancers noticed that the old wall paper which covered the
partition wall between the hall and the sealed chamber had been
loosened through the jarring of the building, and had fallen away from
the sealed door with its mysterious inscription.

The story of the sealed chamber had been almost forgotten by most of
those present, forgotten with many other old legends heard in
childhood. The inscription thus suddenly revealed naturally aroused
great interest, and there was a general curiosity to know what the
mysterious closed room might hide. Conjectures flew from mouth to
mouth. Some insisted that the closed door must hide the traces of a
hideous murder, or some other equally terrible crime. Others suggested
that perhaps the room had been used as a hiding place for garments and
other articles belonging to some person who had died of a pestilence,
and that the room had been sealed for fear of spreading the disease.
Still others thought that in the sealed chamber there might be found a
secret entrance from the cellars, which had made the room available as
a hiding place for robbers or smugglers. The guests had quite
forgotten their dancing in the interest awakened by the sight of the
mysterious door.

"For mercy's sake, don't let's go too near it!" exclaimed some of the
young ladies. But the majority thought it would be great fun to see
what was hidden there. Most of the men said that they considered it
fooli