the dear,
darling little hands and fingers and feet, and the speck of a nose and
the dot of a mouth! Oh papa! isn't it splendid to have a baby in the
house?"

"Very splendid," said papa, relaxing into a smile. "A fine little
fellow, nurse! There, cover him up again and let him sleep. We must
take extra care of the heir of Kingsland Court. And Mildred, child,
you should be in bed. One o'clock is no hour for little girls to be
out of their nests."

"Oh, papa! as if I could sleep and not see the baby!"

"Well, you have seen it, and now run away to your room. Mamma and baby
both want to sleep, and nurse doesn't need you, I am sure."

"That I don't," said nurse, "nor the doctor, either. So run away, Miss
Milly, and go to sleep yourself. The baby will be here, all safe for
you, in the morning."

The little girl--a flaxen-haired, pretty-featured child--kissed the
baby, kissed papa, and dutifully departed. Sir Jasper followed her out
of the room, down the stairs, and back into the library, with the face
of a man who has just been reprieved from sudden death. As he
re-entered the library, he paused and started a step back, gazing
fixedly at one of the windows. The heavy curtain had been partially
drawn back, and a white, spectral face was glued to the glass, glaring
in.

"Who have we here?" said the baronet to himself; "that face can belong
to no one in the house."

He walked straight to the window--the face never moved. A hand was
raised and tapped on the glass. A voice outside spoke:

"For Heaven's sake, open and let me in, before I perish in this bitter
storm."

Sir Jasper Kingsland opened the window and flung it wide.

"Enter! whoever you are," he said. "No one shall ask in vain at
Kingsland, this happy night."

He stepped back, and, all covered with snow, the midnight intruder
entered and stood before him. And Sir Jasper Kingsland saw the
strangest-looking creature he had ever beheld in the whole course of
his life.

CHAPTER II.

ACHMET THE ASTROLOGER.

An old man, yet tall and upright, wearing a trailing cloak of dull
black, long gray hair flowing over the shoulders, and tight to the
scalp a skull-cap of black velvet. A patriarchal board, abundant and
silver-white, streamed down his breast, and out of a dull, white face,
seamed and wrinkled, looked a pair of eyes piercing and black.

Sir Jasper took a stop backward, and regarded this singular apparition
in wonder. The old man f