s must arrive.

"The morning dawned brightly, with a keen frost, and several men were
sent off along the road to ---- with the first rays of light.

"Some hours afterward Father O'Connor arrived, having made his way with
considerable difficulty across the hill. Miss Patricia claimed his first
attention, for my unhappy charge remained senseless and motionless as
ever.

"After a long conference, he came to me with grave looks.

"'She is at the window this day,' he said, shaking his head sorrowfully,
when I had told him my share of the last night's singular experiences.
'The pale lady is there; I saw her as I came by the bridge as plainly as
now I see you. We shall have evil tidings of that poor lad before
nightfall, or I am strangely mistaken.'

"Evil tidings indeed they were that reached us on the return of some of
the exploring-party. They were first attracted from following as nearly
as they could the line of road, blocked as it was with drifts of snow by
hearing the howling of a dog at some little distance, in the direction
of the precipitous ravine which went by the name of 'Armstrong's
Clough.' Following the sound, they came upon traces of wheels in the
hill-side, where no carriage could have gone had it not been for the
deep snow which concealed and smoothed away the inequalities of the
ground. These marks were traced here and there till they led to the
verge of the precipice, where a struggle had evidently taken place, and
masses of snow had been dislodged and fallen into the ravine.

"Looking below, the only thing they could see in the waste of snow was a
little dog, who was known to be in the habit of running with the
post-horses from ----, which was scraping wildly in the snow and filling
the air with its dismal howlings. A considerable circuit had to be made
before the bottom of the clough could be reached, and then the whole
tragedy was revealed. There lay the broken carriage, the dead horses,
and two stiffened corpses under the snow, that had drifted over and
around them.

"I need not pursue the melancholy story; I was an old fool for telling
it to you," said the Doctor.

"But Miss Collingham--what became of her?" asked an eager listener.

"Well, she did not recover," answered the Doctor with a slight trembling
in his voice. "It was a sad matter altogether; and within a short time
she lay beside her betrothed in the family vault below the chapel. Sir
James broke up his establishment and went abroad