band, and cried:

"'And now where is she? Let us have her here at once. She must be
hungry, and she must be cold. Bring her, my good sir.'

"'I do not know where she is. We must be patient. She will return
herself as soon as she thinks it safe.'

"I could not believe my ears.

"'You do not know where she is?' I repeated. 'How could you be so
self-possessed through all these hours and all this maddened searching
if you did not know she was safe?'

"'I did know she was safe. She swore to me before she set foot on your
doorstep that she could so hide herself in these walls that no one could
ever find her till she chose to reveal herself; and I believed her, and
felt secure.'

"I did not know what to say.

"'But she is a stranger,' I murmured. 'What does she know about my
house?'

"'She is a stranger to you,' he retorted, 'but she may not be a stranger
to the house. How long have you lived here?'

"I could not say long. It was at the most but a year; so I merely shook
my head, but I felt strangely nonplussed.

"This feeling, however, soon gave way to one much more serious as the
moments fled by and presently the hours, and she did not come. We tried
to curb our impatience, tried to believe that her delay was only owing
to extra caution; but as morning waxed to noon, alarm took the place of
satisfaction in our breasts, and we began to search the house ourselves,
calling her name up and down the halls and through the empty rooms, till
it seemed as if the very walls must open and reveal us the being so
frantically desired.

"'She is not in the house,' I now asserted to the almost frenzied
bridegroom. 'Our lies have come back upon our heads, and it is in the
river we must look for her.'

"But he would not agree with me in this, and repeated again and again:
'She said she would hide here. She would not deceive me, nor would she
have sought death alone. Leave me to look for her another hour. I must,
I can, I will find her yet!'

"But he never did. After that last fond look with which she turned down
that very hall you see before you, we saw her no more; and if my house
owns no ghost and never echoes to the sound of a banshee's warning, it
is not because it does not own a mystery which is certainly thrilling
enough to give us either."

"Oh!" cried out several voices, as I ceased, "is that all? And what
became of the poor bridegroom? And did the father ever come back? And
haven't you ever really found out where t