convinced myself that the second story was empty, though a lighted lamp
swung in the upper entry, as well as in that below, throwing a flood of
radiance on the scene with which I would fain have dispensed.

I heard the sound of voices from the closed parlors, and saw reposing
on the rack before me several hats and canes, indicative of visitors.
From the study, however, there fortunately came no murmur, and I found
that it was dark. The front-door stood invitingly open; I could see the
opposite lamp-post without, and I had made up my mind to dart on and
downward, and reach at a bound the pavement, when the door of the first
parlor was suddenly thrown back, and left so, by a servant coming out
with a tray of wines and fruits which he had been evidently handing, and
I had just time to shrink into shadow, favored in my wish for
concealment by the black dress and veil I wore, when a once familiar
form appeared in the door-way of the front hall, which I recognized at a
glance as that of Gregory. Closing the door firmly after him, he
prepared to divest himself of hat and cape in the hall, without a look
in my direction. After the completion of which process he entered the
parlor by the nearest door, setting that also wide open as he did so,
with some exclamation about the heat of the apartment, which seemed to
meet with acquiescence from the powers within.

I caught a panoramic view of that interior before I fled swiftly,
noiselessly, hopelessly, back to my cage again, having lost my only
chance of escape by that fatal delay of five minutes on the platform. I
should have been out and away on the wings of the wind ere Gregory
entered the inclosure before the house, had I not hesitated. Yet, after
all, perhaps, I miscalculated. What if I had met him face to face--been
seized and dragged back again to captivity! Perchance it was better as
it was. Time would develop and determine this; but, in the interval, how
woful was my disappointment!

I had time to get to bed again, and in some degree recover my
composure; indeed, I had been in bed an hour when the clock in the
dining-room beneath me, which, since the evident occupancy of that
long-deserted hall, had been wound and put in running order, struck
twelve, with its deep-mouthed, melodramatic tones, and at the very
moment I heard sounds indicative of the resurrection of the mesmeric
sleeper.

She was evidently startled in some way on finding herself awake again,
or perhaps fr