be afraid to play in its shadow, and if I did stray
anywhere near it, my father would always call me away. Her death must
have broken his heart. He rarely spoke; I never saw him smile; and his
eyes were so sad that I could weep now at remembering them. Then he too
died while I was still a little girl, and now I have no one in the world
but dear old mere." Her voice trembled a little, but she flushed, and
smiled again beneath his meaning look. "It was many years before even
the lower floor was reopened, and I am almost sure that yours is the
only room there which has ever been used."

They stepped, as she concluded, into the hall.

"I have never been in here before," she said, looking about her with
shy curiosity. A flood of sunlight poured through the wide arched window
at the foot of the stair. The door of the room nearest the entrance
stood open; the others, ranging along the narrow hall, were all closed.

"This is my room," he said, nodding towards the open door.

She turned her head quickly away, with an impulse of girlish modesty,
and ran lightly up the stair. He glanced downward as he followed, and
paused, surprised to see the flutter of white garments in a shaded
corner of his room. Looking more closely, he saw that it was a glimmer
of light from an open window on the dark polished floor.

The upper hall was filled with sombre shadows; the motionless air was
heavy with a musty, choking odor. In the dimness a few tattered hangings
were visible on the walls; a rope, with bits of crumbling evergreen
clinging to it, trailed from above one of the low windows. The panelled
double door of the ballroom was shut; no sound came from behind it.

"The girls have seen us coming," said Felice, picking her way daintily
across the dust-covered floor, "and they have hidden themselves inside."

Keith pushed open the heavy valves, which creaked noisily on their
rusty hinges. The gloom within was murkier still; the chill dampness,
with its smell of mildew and mould, was like that of a funeral vault.

The large, low-ceilinged room ran the entire length of the house. A
raised dais, whose faded carpet had half rotted away, occupied an alcove
at one end; upon it four or five wooden stools were placed; one of these
was overturned; on another a violin in its baggy green baize cover was
lying. Straight high-backed chairs were pushed against the walls on
either side; in front of an open fireplace with a low wooden mantel two
small cu