by _night_ alone."

So things went on--the elder girl pained and melancholy--the younger
silent, changed, and unaccountable.

A little while after this, very late one night, on awaking, Alice heard
a conversation being carried on in her sister's room. There seemed to be
no disguise about it. She could not distinguish the words, indeed, the
walls being some six feet thick, and two great oak doors intercepting.
But Una's clear voice, and the deep bell-like tones of the unknown, made
up the dialogue.

Alice sprung from her bed, threw her clothes about her, and tried to
enter her sister's room; but the inner door was bolted. The voices
ceased to speak as she knocked, and Una opened it, and stood before her
in her nightdress, candle in hand.

"Una--Una, darling, as you hope for peace, tell me who is here?" cried
frightened Alice, with her trembling arms about her neck.

Una drew back, with her large innocent blue eyes fixed full upon her.

"Come in, Alice," she said, coldly.

And in came Alice, with a fearful glance around. There was no hiding
place there; a chair, a table, a little bedstead, and two or three pegs
in the wall to hang clothes on; a narrow window, with two iron bars
across; no hearth or chimney--nothing but bare walls.

Alice looked round in amazement, and her eyes glanced with painful