"Explain yourself," said her mistress, rising.

"An accident has happened on the railway, and a man has been killed."

"What--not Edgardo!" almost screamed Selina.

"No, Burke the Slogger!" your ladyship.

"My first husband!" said Lady Selina, sinking on her knees. "Just
Heaven, I thank thee!"

CHAPTER VI.

The morning of the seventeenth dawned brightly over Sloperton. "A fine
day for the wedding," said the sexton to Swipes, the butler of
Sloperton Grange. The aged retainer shook his head sadly. "Alas!
there's no trusting in signs!" he continued. "Seventy-five years ago,
on a day like this, my young mistress--" But he was cut short by the
appearance of a stranger.

"I would see Sir Edgardo," said the new-comer, impatiently.

The bridegroom, who, with the rest of the wedding-train, was about
stepping into the carriage to proceed to the parish church, drew the
stranger aside.

"It's done!" said the stranger, in a hoarse whisper.

"Ah! and you buried her?"

"With the others!"

"Enough. No more at present. Meet me after the ceremony, and you
shall have your reward."

The stranger shuffled away, and Edgardo returned to his bride. "A
trifling matter of business I had forgotten, my dear Selina; let us
proceed." And the young man pressed the timid hand of his blushing
bride as he handed her into the carriage. The cavalcade rode out of
the court-yard. At the same moment, the deep bell on Guy's Keep tolled
ominously.

CHAPTER VII.

Scarcely had the wedding-train left the Grange, than Alice Sedilia,
youngest daughter of Lady Selina, made her escape from the western
tower, owing to a lack of watchfulness on the part of Clarissa. The
innocent child, freed from restraint, rambled through the lonely
corridors, and finally, opening a door, found herself in her mother's
boudoir. For some time she amused herself by examining the various
ornaments and elegant trifles with which it was filled. Then, in
pursuance of a childish freak, she dressed herself in her mother's
laces and ribbons. In this occupation she chanced to touch a peg which
proved to be a spring that opened a secret panel in the wall. Alice
uttered a cry of delight as she noticed what, to her childish fancy,
appeared to be the slow-match of a fire-work. Taking a lucifer match in
her hand she approached the fuse. She hesitated a moment. What would
her mother and her nurse say?

Suddenly the ringing of the chimes of Sloperton pa