verything is as it should be. That the visit should be made at
midnight, and at no other time, is one of Lady Chillington's whims--a
whim that by process of time has crystallised into a law. The room is
never entered by day."

"Was it whim or madness that caused Sir John Chillington to leave orders
that his body should be kept above ground for twenty years?"

"Who shall tell by what motive he was influenced when he had that
particular clause inserted in his will? Deepley Walls itself hangs on
the proper fulfilment of the clause. If Lady Chillington were to cause
her husband's remains to be interred in the family vault before the
expiry of the twenty years, the very day she did so the estate would
pass from her to the present baronet, a distant cousin, between whom and
her ladyship there has been a bitter feud of many years' standing.
Although Deepley Walls has been in the family for a hundred and fifty
years, it has never been entailed. The entailed estate is in Yorkshire,
and there Sir Mark, the present baronet, resides. Lady Chillington has
the power of bequeathing Deepley Walls to whomsoever she may please,
providing she carry out strictly the instructions contained in her
husband's will. It is possible that in a court of law the will might
have been set aside on the ground of insanity, or the whole matter might
have been thrown into Chancery. But Lady Chillington did not choose to
submit to such an ordeal. All the courts of law in the kingdom could
have given her no more than she possessed already--they could merely
have given her permission to bury her husband's body, and it did not
seem to her that such a permission could compensate for turning into
public gossip a private chapter of family history. So here Sir John
Chillington has remained since his death, and here he will stay till the
last of the twenty years has become a thing of the past. Two or three
times every year Mr. Winter, Sir Mark's lawyer, comes over to Deepley
Walls to satisfy himself by ocular proof that Sir John's instructions
are being duly carried out. This he has a legal right to do in the
interests of his client. Sometimes he is conducted to this room by Lady
Chillington, sometimes by me; but even in his case her ladyship will not
relax her rule of not having the room visited by day."

Sister Agnes then showed Janet that behind the black draperies there was
a cupboard in the wall, which on being opened proved to contain a
quantity of large c