'd never been in the north
until Uncle Francis came home from India some months ago and fetched
me from the school where I'd been ever since my father and mother
died--that was when I was twelve. No, except my father, I never knew
any of the Raven family. I believe Uncle Francis and myself are the
very last."

"You must like living under the old family roof?" I suggested.

She gave me a somewhat undecided look.

"I'm not quite sure," she answered. "Uncle Francis is the very soul of
kindness--I think he's the very kindest person, man or woman, I ever
came across, but--I don't know."

"Don't know--what?" I asked.

"Don't know if I really like this place," she said. "As I said to you
this afternoon, this is a very odd house altogether, and there's a
strange atmosphere about it, and I think something must have happened
here. I--well, personally, I feel as if I were something so very small
and insignificant, shut up in immensity."

"That's because it's a little strange, even now," I suggested. "You'll
get used to it. And I suppose there's society."

"Uncle Francis is a good deal of a recluse," she answered. "It's
really a very good thing that I'm fond of outdoor life, and that I
take an interest in books, too. But I'm very deficient in knowledge in
book matters--do teach me something while you're here!--I'd like to
know a good deal about all these folios and quartos and so on."

I made haste to reply that I should be only too happy to put my
knowledge at her disposal, and she responded by saying that she would
like to help me in classifying and inspecting the various volumes
which the dead-and-gone great-uncle had collected. We got on very well
together, and I was a little sorry when my host came in with his other
guest--who, a loop-hole being given him, proceeded to give us a
learned dissertation on the evidences of Roman occupation of the North
of England as evidenced by recent and former discoveries of coins
between Trent and Tweed: it was doubtless very interesting, and a
striking proof of Mr. Cazalette's deep and profound knowledge of his
special subject, and at another time I should have listened to it
gladly. But--somehow I should just then have preferred to chat quietly
in the corner of the hearth with Miss Raven.

We all retire early--that, Mr. Raven informed me with a shy laugh, as
if he were confessing a failing, was the custom of the house. But, he
added, I should find a fire in my sitting-room, so tha