dad?" she asked. "Do you deny that strange noises are heard
there when there is so much evidence in the affirmative?"

"I really don't know, my dear. I've never had the pleasure of hearing
them myself, though I've been told of them ever since I bought the
place."

"But there is a legend which is supposed to account for them, is there
not, dad? Do tell me what you know," she urged. "I'm so very much
interested in the old place and its bygone history."

"The less you know concerning the Whispers the better, my dear," he
replied abruptly.

Her father's ominous words surprised her. Did he, too, believe in the
fatal omen, though he was trying to mislead her and poke fun at the
local superstition?

"But why shouldn't I know?" she protested. "This is the first time, dad,
that you've tried to withhold from me any antiquarian knowledge that you
possess. Besides, the story of Glencardine and its lords is intensely
fascinating to me."

"So might be the Whispers, if ever you had the misfortune to hear them."

"Misfortune!" she gasped, turning pale. "Why do you say misfortune?"

But he laughed a strange, hollow laugh, and, endeavouring to turn his
seriousness into humour, said, "Well, they might give you a turn,
perhaps. They would make me start, I feel sure. From what I've been
told, they seem to come from nowhere. It is practically an unseen
spectre who has the rather unusual gift of speech."

It was on the tip of her tongue to explain how, on the previous night,
she had actually listened to the Whispers. But she refrained. She
recognised that, though he would not admit it, he was nevertheless
superstitious of ill results following the hearing of those weird
whisperings. So she made eager pretence of wishing to know the
historical facts of the incident referred to by the gamekeeper.

"No," exclaimed the blind man softly but firmly, taking her hand and
stroking her arm tenderly, as was his habit when he wished to persuade
her. "No, Gabrielle dear," he said; "we will change the subject now. Do
not bother your head about absurd country legends of that sort. There
are so many concerning Glencardine and its lords that a whole volume
might be filled with them."

"But I want to know all about this particular one, dad," she said.

"From me you will never know, my dear," was his answer, as his gray,
serious face was upturned to hers. "You have never heard the Whispers,
and I sincerely hope that you never will."

CHAPTER