"A secret with _you_, sir!"

"But, besides, Lady Alice," I cried, springing to my feet, in distress
at her hardness, "I heard the horse with the clanking shoe, and, in
terror, I caught you up, and fled with you, almost before I knew what I
did. And I hear it now--I hear it now!" I cried, as once more the
ominous sound rang through my brain.

The angry glow faded from her face, and its paleness grew almost ghastly
with dismay.

"Do _you_ hear it?" she said, throwing back her covering, and rising
from the couch. "I do not."

She stood listening with distended eyes, as if _they_ were the gates by
which such sounds entered.

"I do not hear it," she said again, after a pause. "It must be gone
now." Then, turning to me, she laid her hand on my arm, and looked at
me. Her black hair, disordered and entangled, wandered all over her
white dress to her knees. Her face was paler than ever; and her eyes
were so wide open that I could see the white all round the large dark
iris.

"Did you hear it?" she said. "No one ever heard it before but me. I must
forgive you--you could not help it. I will trust you, too. Take me to my
room."

Without a word of reply, I wrapped my plaid about her. Then bethinking
me of my chamber-candle, I lighted it, and opening the two doors, led