la Crowl, of Applewale House, near by
Lexhoe.

"'Ho, then,' says one of them, 'you'll not be long there!'

"And I looked at him as much as to say 'Why not?' for I had spoken out
when I told them where I was goin', as if 'twas something clever I hed
to say.

"'Because,' says he, 'and don't you for your life tell no one, only
watch her and see--she's possessed by the devil, and more an half a
ghost. Have you got a Bible?'

"'Yes, sir,' says I. For my mother put my little Bible in my box, and
I knew it was there: and by the same token, though the print's too
small for my ald eyes, I have it in my press to this hour.

"As I looked up at him saying 'Yes, sir,' I thought I saw him winkin'
at his friend; but I could not be sure.

"'Well,' says he, 'be sure you put it under your bolster every night,
it will keep the ald girl's claws aff ye.'

"And I got such a fright when he said that, you wouldn't fancy! And
I'd a liked to ask him a lot about the ald lady, but I was too shy,
and he and his friend began talkin' together about their own consarns,
and dowly enough I got down, as I told ye, at Lexhoe. My heart sank as
I drove into the dark avenue. The trees stand very thick and big, as
ald as the ald house almost, and four people, with their arms out and
finger-tips touchin', barely girds round some of them.

"Well my neck was stretched out o' the winda, looking for the first
view o' the great house; and all at once we pulled up in front of it.

"A great white-and-black house it is, wi' great black beams across and
right up it, and gables lookin' out, as white as a sheet, to the moon,
and the shadows o' the trees, two or three up and down in front, you
could count the leaves on them, and all the little diamond-shaped
winda-panes, glimmering on the great hall winda, and great shutters,
in the old fashion, hinged on the wall outside, boulted across all the
rest o' the windas in front, for there was but three or four servants,
and the old lady in the house, and most o' t' rooms was locked up.

"My heart was in my mouth when I sid the journey was over, and this
the great house afoore me, and I sa near my aunt that I never sid till
noo, and Dame Crowl, that I was come to wait upon, and was afeard on
already.

"My aunt kissed me in the hall, and brought me to her room. She was
tall and thin, wi' a pale face and black eyes, and long thin hands wi'
black mittins on. She was past fifty, and her word was short; but her
word wa