find her attention fixed on himself.

With the sweetest notes of a "voice ever soft and low, an excelling
thing in woman," she murmured the following song, which was recorded in
her family to have been composed by her elder brother, on parting from
a lady to whom he was attached, previous to embarkment on the expedition
in which he fell, and to which it alludes:

Parte la nave
Spiegan le vele
Vento crudele
Mi fa partir.
Addio Teresa,
Teresa, addio!
Piacendo a Dio
Ti rivedro.
Non pianger bella,
Non pianger, No!--
Che al mio ritorno
Ti sposero.

Il Capitano
Mi chiama a bordo;
Io faccio il sordo
Per non partir!
Addio Teresa,
Teresa, Addio!
Piacendo a Dio
Ti rivedro.
Non pianger bella,
Non pianger, No!--
Che al mio ritorno
Ti sposero.

Vado a levante
Vado a ponente
Se trovo gente
Ti scrivero.
Addio Teresa,
Teresa, Addio;
Piacendo a Dio
Ti rivedro.
Non pianger bella,
Non pianger, No!--
Che al mio ritorno
Ti sposero.

Helen had reached the concluding cadence of her soft and melancholy
song, when raising her eyes from the strings to her still sleeping
husband, she beheld with panic-struck and breathless amazement, a
female figure, standing opposite resting her hand on the back of his
chair--silent, and motionless, and with fixed and glassy eyes gazing
mournfully on herself. She saw--yes!--distinctly saw, as described by
little Hugh, "a Lady in rich attire, but pale, very pale;" and in the
stillness and gloom of the apartment and the hour,

"'Twas frightful there to see
A lady richly clad as she,
Beautiful exceedingly."

The paleness of that pensive face did not lessen its loveliness, and the
hair which hung in bright curls on her shoulders and gorgeous apparel,
was white and glossy as silver. Helen gazed for a moment spell-bound;
for she beheld in that countenance without the possibility of doubt, the
resemblance of the deceased Lady Greville, whose portrait, in a similar
dress, hung in the picture gallery at Silsea Castle. She shuddered; for
the eyes of the spectre remained steadfastly fixed upon her; and its
lips moved as if about to address her--"Mother of God--protect me!"
exclaimed Helen convulsively, and she fell insensible on the floor.

CHAPTER II.

"Sorrow seems pleased to dwell with so much sweetness;
And now and then a melancholy smile
Breaks l