idget must have left it so. I dare say the house has a ghostly
reputation and is shunned. And now, do you know why I did not go
treasure-hunting?"

"How should I know?" I answered him.

He caught me suddenly into his arms.

"Because, Bawn, my darling," he said, "the dead has come alive again."

CHAPTER XVII

THE WILL OF OTHERS

He let me go gently just as the old foot touched the top step of the
stairs, and Bridget Kelly, a little, fat, rosy, smiling woman, much
pleasanter of expression than her sister, Maureen, came into the
gallery.

"Why, bless me, Captain Cardew," she said, "who have you found? There is
a cabman at the door who would have it that he was waiting for a young
lady, although I told him no young lady had come in but only a
gentleman."

"Look and see who it is, Bridget," Captain Cardew answered her.

She looked at me in a momentary bewilderment. Then she flung her arms
about me.

"Why, it must be Miss Bawn," she cried. "Miss Bawn, and the image of her
Ladyship, yet more red in the cheeks than her Ladyship had, except maybe
when his Lordship was courting her. And where did you come from at all,
Miss Bawn? or did the sky open to let you fall through?"

"I came by the cab, Bridget. I am in Dublin on a visit with Miss
Champion. You remember Miss Champion?"

"Is it Miss Mary? Aye, troth, I do remember her. 'Tis mistress of this
house she ought to be by rights, leastways when his Lordship and her
Ladyship are gone to their rest; and long may it be before they go! So
you're here with Miss Mary, Miss Bawn, honey? And wasn't it the quarest
thing at all that you should walk into the house and find Captain
Anthony in it?"

"I was nearly running out of it," I said. "I was frightened of all the
empty rooms. The sound of the hall door shutting frightened me most of
all. I was about to run out of the house when I met Captain Cardew."

"Ah, sure, and you weren't frightened then?" the old woman said in a
coaxing way. "You wouldn't be frightened with Captain Anthony to take
care of you?--no lady would. Sure, dear, I've lived in it many a year my
lone self, and worse than myself I've never seen, though they do have
quare ould stories about it. I wouldn't be frightened, itself, if I did
see anything, only spake bouldly to it and ax it what was keepin' it
from its rest."

"My grandmother will be glad to hear you are well, Bridget. She told me
to be sure to see you. She sent you some presents. You w