and the hat was again taken off, and waved violently.

Barbara Hare turned sick with utter terror. _She_ must fathom it; she
must see who, and what it was; for the servants she dared not call, and
those movements were imperative, and might not be disregarded. But
she possessed more innate courage than falls to the lot of some young
ladies.

"Mamma," she said, returning to the parlor and catching up her shawl,
while striving to speak without emotion. "I shall just walk down the
path and see if papa is coming."

Mrs. Hare did not reply. She was musing upon other things, in that
quiescent happy mood, which a small portion of spirits will impart to
one weak in body; and Barbara softly closed the door, and stole out
again to the portico. She stood a moment to rally her courage, and again
the hat was waved impatiently.

Barbara Hare commenced her walk towards it in dread unutterable, an
undefined sense of evil filling her sinking heart; mingling with which,
came, with a rush of terror, a fear of that other undefinable evil--the
evil Mrs. Hare had declared was foreboded by her dream.



CHAPTER IV.

THE MOONLIGHT INTERVIEW.

Cold and still looked the old house in the moonbeams. Never was the moon