very lonely, Miss, while I am away?' asked Mary, uneasily, as
she lighted her candle.

'I can't help it, Mary. Go. I think if I heard we were going, I could
almost get up and dance and sing. I can't bear this dreadful uncertainty
any longer.'

'If old Wyat is outside, I'll come back and wait here a bit, till she's out
o' the way,' said Mary; 'and, anyhow, I'll make all the haste I can. The
drops and the sal-volatile is here, Miss, by your hand.'

And with an anxious look at me, she made her exit, softly, and did not
immediately return, by which I concluded that she had found the way clear,
and had gained the upper story without interruption.

This little anxiety ended, its subsidence was followed by a sense of
loneliness, and with it, of vague insecurity, which increased at last to
such a pitch, that I wondered at my own madness in sending my companion
away; and at last my terrors so grew, that I drew back into the farthest
corner of the bed, with my shoulders to the wall, and my bed-clothes
huddled about me, with only a point open to peep at.

At last the door opened gently.

'Who's there?' I cried, in extremity of horror, expecting I knew not whom.

'Me, Miss,' whispered Mary Quince, to my unutterable relief; and with her
candle flared, and a wild and pallid face, Mary Quince glided into the
room, locking the door as she entered.

I do not know how it was, but I found myself holding Mary fast with both my
hands as we stood side by side on the floor.

'Mary, you are terrified; for God's sake, what is the matter?' I cried.

'No, Miss,' said Mary, faintly, 'not much.'

'I see it in your face. What is it?'

'Let me sit down, Miss. I'll tell you what I saw; only I'm just a bit
queerish.'

Mary sat down by my bed.

'Get in, Miss; you'll take cold. Get into bed, and I'll tell you. It is not
much.'

I did get into bed, and gazing on Mary's frightened face, I felt a
corresponding horror.

'For mercy's sake, Mary, say what it is?'

So again assuring me 'it was not much,' she gave me in a somewhat diffuse
and tangled narrative the following facts:--

On closing my door, she raised her candle above her head and surveyed the
lobby, and seeing no one there she ascended the stairs swiftly. She passed
along the great gallery to the left, and paused a moment at the cross
gallery, and then recollected my directions clearly, and followed the
passage to the right.

There are doors at each side, and she had forgott