a sort of sobbing monologue.
Gliding rapidly up stairs in the dark, she paused at Philip's deserted
room, but the door was locked, and there was profound stillness. She
then descended, and pausing at the great landing, heard other steps
descending also. Retreating to the end of the hall, she hastily lighted
a candle, when the steps ceased. With her accustomed nerve, wishing to
explore the thing thoroughly, she put out the light and kept still.
As she expected, the footsteps presently recommenced, descending
stealthily, but drawing no nearer, and seeming rather like sounds from
an adjoining house, heard through a party-wall. This was impossible, as
the house stood alone. Flushed with excitement, she relighted the hall
candles, and, taking one of them, searched the whole entry and stairway,
going down even to the large, old-fashioned cellar.

Looking about her in this unfamiliar region, her eye fell on a door
that seemed to open into the wall; she had noticed a similar door on the
story above,--one of the closet doors that had been nailed up by Aunt
Jane's order. As she looked, however, a chill breath blew in from
another direction, extinguishing her lamp. This air came from the outer
door of the cellar, and she had just time to withdraw into a corner
before a man's steps approached, passing close by her.

Even Hope's strong nerves had begun to yield, and a cold shudder went
through her. Not daring to move, she pressed herself against the wall,
and her heart seemed to stop as the unseen stranger passed. Instead of
his ascending where she had come down, as she had expected, she heard
him grope his way toward the door she had seen in the wall.

There he seemed to find a stairway, and when his steps were thus turned
from her, she was seized by a sudden impulse and followed him, groping
her way as she could. She remembered that the girls had talked of secret
stairways in that house, though she had no conception whither they could
lead, unless to some of the shut-up closets.

She steadily followed, treading cautiously upon each creaking step. The
stairway was very narrow, and formed a regular spiral as in a turret.
The darkness and the curving motion confused her brain, and it was
impossible to tell how high in the house she was, except when once she
put her hand upon what was evidently a door, and moreover saw through
its cracks the lamp she had left burning in the upper hall. This glimpse
of reality reassured her. She had