once had slept there; and above all Capitola thought of the
beautiful, strange girl, who was now an inmate of that sinful and
accursed house! And while these thoughts absorbed her mind,
suddenly, in a turning of the path, she came full upon the gloomy
building.




CHAPTER V.

THE HIDDEN HOUSE.


The very stains and fractures on the wall
Assuming features solemn and terrific,
Hinted some tragedy of that old hall
Locked up in hieroglyphic!
Prophetic hints that filled the soul with dread;
But to one gloomy window pointing mostly,
The while some secret inspiration said,
That chamber is the ghostly!

--Hood.


The Hidden House was a large, irregular edifice of dark red
sandstone with its walls covered closely with the clinging ivy, that
had been clipped away only from a few of the doors and windows, and
its roof over-shadowed by the top branches of gigantic oaks and elms