e to-morrow. He is in town to-night."

She looked so strange that Percy for an instant thought it was a
seizure. Her face seemed to fall away in a kind of emotion, half
cunning, half fear.

"Well, my child?"

"Father, I am a little afraid when I think of that man. He cannot harm
me, can he? I am safe now? I am a Catholic--?"

"My child, of course you are safe. What is the matter? How can this man
injure you?"

But the look of terror was still there, and Percy came a step nearer.

"You must not give way to fancies," he said. "Just commit yourself to
our Blessed Lord. This man can do you no harm."

He was speaking now as to a child; but it was of no use. Her old mouth
was still sucked in, and her eyes wandered past him into the gloom of
the room behind.

"My child, tell me what is the matter. What do you know of Felsenburgh?
You have been dreaming."

She nodded suddenly and energetically, and Percy for the first time felt
his heart give a little leap of apprehension. Was this old woman out of
her mind, then? Or why was it that that name seemed to him sinister?
Then he remembered that Father Blackmore had once talked like this. He
made an effort, and sat down once more.

"Now tell me plainly," he said. "You have been dreaming. What have you
dreamt?"

She raised herself a little in bed, again glancing round the room; then
she put out her old ringed hand for one of his, and he gave it,
wondering.

"The door is shut, father? There is no one listening?"

"No, no, my child. Why are you trembling? You must not be
superstitious."

"Father, I will tell you. Dreams are nonsense, are they not? Well, at
least, this is what I dreamt.

"I was somewhere in a great house; I do not know where it was. It was a
house I have never seen. It was one of the old houses, and it was very
dark. I was a child, I thought, and I was ... I was afraid of something.
The passages were all dark, and I went crying in the dark, looking for a
light, and there was none. Then I heard a voice talking, a great way
off. Father---"

Her hand gripped his more tightly, and again her eyes went round the
room.

With great difficulty Percy repressed a sigh. Yet he dared not leave her
just now. The house was very still; only from outside now and again
sounded the clang of the cars, as they sped countrywards again from the
congested town, and once the sound of great shouting. He wondered what
time it was.

"Had you better tell me now?" he asked,