will not say
what it was to her) to meet the bare decaying walls and mouldering
appurtenances of this dismal hole. True, we had just come from a
description of the place in all the neglect of its many years of
desolation, yet the smart finish of the open portion we had just left
poorly prepared us for what we here encountered.

But the first impression over--an impression which was to recur to me
many a night afterward in dreams--I remembered the nearer and more
imperative cause which had drawn us thither, and turning the light into
each and every corner, looked eagerly for what I so much dreaded to
find.

A couch to which some old cushions still clung stood against the farther
wall. Thank God! it was empty; so were all the corners of the room.
Nothing living and--nothing dead!

Turning quickly upon Mrs. Carew, I made haste to assure her that our
fears were quite unfounded.

But she was not even looking my way. Her eyes were on the ground, and
she seemed merely waiting--in some impatience, evidently, but yet merely
waiting--for me to finish and be gone.

This was certainly odd, for the place was calculated in itself to rouse
curiosity, especially in one who knew its story. A table, thick with
dust and blurred with dampness, still gave tokens of a bygone
festivity--among which a bottle and some glasses stood conspicuous.
Cards were there too, dingy and green with mould--some on the
tables--some on the floor; while the open lid of a small desk pushed up
close to a book-case full of books, still held a rusty pen and the
remnants of what looked like the mouldering sheets of unused paper. As
for the rest--desolation, neglect, horror--but no _child_.

The relief was enormous.

"It is a dreadful place," I exclaimed; "but it might have been worse. Do
you want to see things nearer? Shall we cross the floor?"

"No, no. We have not found Gwendolen; let us go. Oh, let us go!"

A thrill of feeling had crept into her voice. Who could wonder? Yet I
was not ready to humor her very natural sensibilities by leaving quite
so abruptly. The floor interested me; the cushions of that old couch
interested me; the sawn boards surrounding the hole--indeed, many
things.

"We will go in a moment," I assured her; "but, first, cast your eyes
along the floor. Don't you see that some one has preceded us here; and
that not so very long ago? Some one with dainty feet and a skirt that
fell on the ground; in short, a woman and--a lady!"

"