ght--merciful Heaven!--be the arrival of
friends. I started to my feet; I listened, quivering with attention. Was
it in my brain?--was it real? I was at the door, and it seemed to open of
itself. Madame had forgotten to lock it; she was losing her head a little
by this time. The key stood in the gallery door beyond; it too, was open.
I fled wildly. There was a subsiding sound of voices in my uncle's room.
I was, I know not how, on the lobby at the great stair-head outside my
uncle's apartment. My hand was on the banisters, my foot on the first step,
when below me and against the faint light that glimmered through the great
window on the landing I saw a bulky human form ascending, and a voice said
'Hush!' I staggered back, and at that instant fancied, with a thrill of
conviction, I heard Lady Knollys's voice in Uncle Silas' room.

I don't know how I entered the room; I was there like a ghost. I was
frightened at my own state.

Lady Knollys was not there--no one but Madame and my guardian.

I can never forget the look that Uncle Silas fixed on me as he cowered,
seemingly as appalled as I.

I think I must have looked like a phantom newly risen from the grave.

'What's that?--where do you come from?' whispered he.

'Death! death!' was my whispered answer, as I froze with terror where I
stood.

'What does she mean?--what does all this mean?' said Uncle Silas,
recovering wonderfully, and turning with a withering sneer on Madame. 'Do
you think it right to disobey my plain directions, and let her run about
the house at this hour?'

'Death! death! Oh, pray to God for you and me!' I whispered in the same
dreadful tones.

My uncle stared strangely at me again; and after several horrible seconds,
in which he seemed to have recovered himself, he said, sternly and coolly--

'You give too much place to your imagination, niece. Your spirits are in an
odd state--you ought to have advice.'

'Oh, uncle, pity me! Oh, uncle, you are good! you're kind; you're kind
when you think. You could not--you could not--could not! Oh, think of your
brother that was always so good to you! He sees me here. He sees us both.
Oh, save me, uncle--save me!--and I'll give up everything to you. I'll pray
to God to bless you--I'll never forget your goodness and mercy. But don't
keep me in doubt. If I'm to go, oh, for God's sake, shoot me now!'

'You were always odd, niece; I begin to fear you are insane,' he replied,
in the same stern icy tone.

'