ly annoying, but when the nights were very dark, and
nothing could be seen in the room, it was really horrible to hear this
strange girl chattering and mumbling, now in one corner, now in another,
sometimes in the closet, sometimes under the beds; and one night, in a
fearful thunder-storm, she seemed to be terribly excited, and when the
lightning flashed upon the walls, the shadow of her figure could be seen
strangely exaggerated, performing all manner of wild antics.

This conduct of Miss Glenn's puzzled Agnes exceedingly: she could not
decide in her own mind whether the girl was trying to frighten them,
whether she was asleep, or whether she had turns of derangement at
night. Neither of these suppositions seemed exactly to account for her
singular actions. Her evident, and, Agnes doubted not, real distress, at
the possibility of Mrs. Arlington being informed of her nocturnal
performances, and the sacrifices of every kind that she was willing to
make to ensure silence, convinced Agnes that it was not done merely to
alarm them; her vivid remembrance of all that she had said or done in
the night, and her answering questions, and coming to bed so readily
when addressed by Agnes, without any appearance of waking up, led her to
suppose it was not somnambulism; and as Miss Glenn never showed any sign
of wandering of mind in the day time, Agnes could not suppose it to be
derangement. Miss Glenn was a perfect enigma; night after night
disturbing her room-mates with her strange performances, and every
morning going over the same scene of earnest expostulation and entreaty,
accompanied by violent weeping, to induce them not to betray her to
Mrs. Arlington. Poor little Carrie and Ella kept the secret bravely,
though, on the night of the thunder-storm, they were so terrified by
Miss Glenn's conduct, that, wrapping themselves in the bed-blankets, and
persuading Agnes to lock the door after them, they went out, and sat
upon the stairs till morning. The very next day, two sisters who slept
in another room received tidings of the death of their mother, which
hurried them home; and as they were not to return that quarter, little
Carrie and Ella, with Agnes to intercede for them, requested to be
allowed to take their vacated place. Mrs. Arlington readily acquiesced,
as, she said, it would be much better to have four in each room.

Thus things went on, till, one night, Agnes was horror-stricken to find
that Miss Glenn was endeavoring to