ened the carriage
door. But it was the door on the other side of the carriage, opposite
the middle of the road, and not opposite the house, where she wanted to
get out.

"Open the other door," she said.

But the negro's teeth were chattering and the whites of his eyes
rolling, in fearful contrast with the darkness of his skin.

"Open the other door and let me out. I want to go into that house,"
repeated Mrs. Grey, a little impatiently.

"Dat dere house? Oh, laws-a-messy! Bress my soul, missy, you don't want
to go in dat house! Dat's de haunted house! And oh, law, dere's de
corpse lights a-burnin' in dere now!" gasped the negro, shudderingly,
pointing to the dimly-lighted windows under the porch.

"You blockhead, those are the tapers in my friend's sickroom! Open the
other door, I tell you!" said Mrs. Grey, angrily.

"'Deed--'deed--'deed, missy, you must scuse ole nigger like me! I
dussint do it, missy! I dussint go on t'other side ob de carriage nex'
to de ghoses at no price!" said the negro, with chattering teeth.

Mary Grey turned and tried to open the other door for herself, but found
it impossible, and then turned again and said:

"Well, stand out of my way then, you idiot, and let me out of _this_
door!"

The negro gave way, and she got out of the carriage into the middle of
the dusty road.

CHAPTER XXX.

THE SACRIFICE.

At the same moment some one came softly through the cottage gate and
looked up and down the road, as if watching for some one else.

As Mary Grey came round the carriage to the front of the house, she
recognized in the watcher Craven Kyte, who at the same instant perceived
her.

"Wait here for me," she said to the frightened coachman, as she walked
rapidly toward the man who was hurrying to meet her.

"My darling! I have been waiting for you so long!" he said, seizing her
hand.

"Hush! The coachman might hear you," she whispered. "Let me come in."

He drew her arm within his own and led her into the cottage, and into a
cool, well-lighted and tastefully-furnished parlor.

Poor fellow, he had not only put in a few necessary articles of
furniture for his own sleeping-room, but he had fitted up a pretty
parlor for her reception, and provided a dainty feast for her
entertainment.

To do this in time, he had worked like a mill-horse all day long, and he
had spent all his available funds, and even pawned his watch and his
little vanities of jewelry to raise more purchase-