greeted us from the distant porch.

"They are expecting us," he said, and touched up his horse. We flew
up the gravelled road, and before I could still the sudden heart-
beat that attacked me at sight of the grim row of cedars which
surrounded the house, we were hurrying up between the two huge lions
rampant that flanked the steps, to where a servant stood holding
open the door. A sense of gloom and chill at once overwhelmed me.
From the interior, which I faintly saw stretching before me, there
breathed even in that first moment of hurried entrance a cold and
haughty grandeur that, however rich and awe-inspiring, was any thing
but attractive to a nature like mine.

Drawing back, I let Dr. Farnham take the lead, which he did in his
own brusque way. And then I saw what the dim light had not revealed
before, a young man's form standing by the newel-post of the wide
staircase that rose at our left. He at once came forward, and as the
light from the lamp above us fell fully upon him, I saw his face,
and started.

Why? I could not tell. Not because his handsome features struck me
pleasantly, for they did not. There was something in their
expression which I did not like, and yet as I looked at them a
sudden sensation swept over me that made my apprehensions of a
moment back seem like child's play, and I became conscious that if a
sudden call of life or death were behind me urging me on the instant
to quit the house, I could not do it while that face was before me
to be fathomed, and, if possible, understood.

"Ah, I see you have brought the nurse," were the words with which he