"That dreadful man! see, he really did open

the door look, mamma!"

:

They both saw that the closet door was open, though perfectly closed when they retired to rest. "It is certainly very strange," said Mr. Lennox ; "this must be looked into."

"Oh yes! do, pray do, Papa, for I saw him go out at that part of the room," said Mary, pointing to the spot. She described what she had observed about the hinges.

Mr. Lennox took the candle and examined the wall, and certainly found the hinges just where she pointed out, and then the mark of a door in the panel. He struck it with his hand, and it sounded hollow, unlike the tone produced by the rest of the wainscot when struck.

But they did not like to disturb any one in the house at that hour by using violence to open it.

Mr. Lennox resolved toinvestigate the matter closely in the morning, and inform Mr. Mandeville of what had occurred. He thought that

some mischievous person had been playing a trick; and that perhaps there might be some secret staircase or passage into that room, of which Mr. Mandeville had no knowledge.

He determined to sit up and read while his wife and child tried to sleep.

The latter now felt comparatively safe, seeing her father read, in a chair close to her bed, with two candles burning on the table, and was so completely tired and worn out with all her fears, that she soon sank into a quiet slumber.

Harriet would not tell her sister anything about the night's disturbance; but Mary was very ill the next morning, and Lucy having her suspicions awakened, took her into her own room; and when the door was closed, and that she had ascertained no one was listening, she questioned her.

"I don't know whether I ought to tell you, dear aunt, for I heard mamma say she did not wish you to hear of it; and yet—”

CHAPTER II.

COURAGE.

FOR Some time after this accident, Lucy made Mary sleep in her room. The child rapidly recovered, and regained even more than her former share of good health. Then her mother insisted that she should return to sleep with her.

Mary was sorry for the change, but now she felt more courageous: besides,

she dreaded that if she mentioned her fears to Lucy, her aunt might be made unhappy, and she had learnt to watch the changes on her expressive countenance, and

often saw a look which she feared denoted

some secret regrets.

I will not add to my aunt's uneasiness about this room," thought Mary, as she prepared, after saying her prayers, to lie down in the crib where she had suffered such terror the only night she slept there.

And she firmly resolved to try not to think of anything but the beautiful views she had seen, in that pretty country; of the sheep browsing on the fragrant down, of the silvery trout darting through the clear stream near the old Rectory; the pretty churchyard where she had been taken to see the tombs of her mother's parents, and where the slanting sunbeams shone through the dark yew trees, and gleamed like gold on the time-stained monuments.

The thought of that old greystone house— Rollston Court: where mamma would have a

picnic one day, though Aunt Lucy did not much

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like the idea of it; where they had all sat on the terrace steps and watched the setting sun, and afterwards she had followed her cousins into the house, and they wandered about the long passages and large dark staircase.

Then Mary fell asleep, and began to dream of what she had been thinking of at Rollston Court; but the staircase looked more like the one she had come up that evening. And then she certainly was in the haunted room, and she felt extremely frightened, for there was the same low, wailing sound of a child crying. It came from that closet, and she again saw the door open.

'Howbeit, the door was pushed, or so I dream'd, Which slowly, slowly gaped; the hinges creaking With such a rusty eloquence, it seem'd

That Time himself was speaking."

She tried not to look-she resolved to hide her head under the bed-clothes; but her hands seemed tied; she could not turn away, or even