Lord Greville, and as she silently and gratefully pressed the hand
which led her to her seat, she was thankful that he made no
inquiries into the particular cause of her illness. She knew that he
treated all supernatural terrors with especial contempt, and
considered them as fit subjects for the discussion of the low-minded
and ignorant. She had formerly heard him reason soundly, and express
himself strongly, on the subject, and her own scepticism on the
possibility of spectral visitation, was principally owing to the
arguments she had heard from his lips. Frequently had he praised her
in former times, for her composure of mind in peril, and for her
unfeminine superiority to all ideal terrors; and she did not now dare
provoke his surprise and contempt by a revocation of her principles,
or by a relation of the mysterious event which had befallen her.

As soon as he left her, she descended into the court enclosed by the
quadrangle of the mansion; and as long as daylight lasted she
continued to walk there, in order to avoid the solitude of her own
dreaded apartment. As she traversed the pavement with hurried steps,
she gazed on the huge iron cross, and no longer regarded with
indifference the terrific legends attached to it. But at length the
closing evening, accompanied by tempestuous winds, compelled her to
retire to the house.

Once more she found herself installed for the evening in the
abhorred chamber. All was as before--her husband was seated opposite
to her in the same chair, by the same lamp-light--the ticking of the
time-piece was again painfully audible from the wearisome stillness
of the apartment; and her own trembling hands were again lingering
over the embroidery-frame from which she dared not lift her eyes.
Her heart beat painfully, her breath became oppressed, and she