oman, carrying a weeping
child in her arms, is seen to wander through garden and orchard at all
hours of the night, or to come in and look over the beds of the sleepers
in the house, if any are found courageous enough to sleep there."

"Oh! And that is the reason, I suppose, that the house remains
untenanted?" said Craven Kyte.

"Yes, that is the reason why the house, pleasant and attractive as it
looks, remains untenanted; and why the garden and orchard, with their
wealth of flowers and fruit, remain untouched by trespassers," said Mrs.
Grey.

"It is a pity such a pretty place should be so abandoned," mused the
young man.

"It is. But, you see, family after family took it and tried to live in
it in vain. No family could stay longer than a week. It has now been
untenanted for more than a year. I have heard that the owner offers to
rent it for the paltry sum of fifty dollars a year."

"For this delightful house!"

"For this haunted house, you mean!" said Mrs. Grey.

"Oh, nonsense! I beg your forgiveness, my dearest, I did not mean that
for you, but for the gabies that believe in ghosts!" said Craven Kyte.

"Then you do not believe in ghosts?"

"I!"

"Well, I thought you did not. In fact, I knew you did not. Now I want
you to do something to please me," said the siren, laying her soft hand
upon his shoulder.

"Anything in this world, you know, I will do to please you."

CHAPTER XXVII.

WHAT SHE WANTED HIM TO DO.

"Well, I want you to rent this house."

Craven Kyte started with surprise and looked at the speaker.

She went on, however, regardless of his astonishment.

"And I want you to purchase furniture enough to fit up one room for
yourself; and I want you to do that the first thing to-morrow. And I
want you to lodge here alone, while you remain in Richmond."

He still stared at her in amazement, but with no sign of a wish to
disobey her strange commands.

She went on with her instructions.

"You can walk into the city, and take your meals at any restaurant you
please; but you must lodge here alone while you stay in the city."

"I will do so," he answered, earnestly, as he recovered the use of his
tongue--"I will do anything you tell me. I am entirely under your
orders."

"You are the best fellow in the whole world, and I love the very ground
you walk on!" exclaimed the traitress, warmly.

He grasped her hand convulsively and pressed it to his lips, and then
waited her further dire