means that I will not tell an untruth, and do not wish to incense my
lord,' she answered, with dignity.

'Then suppose we go and have another look at him?' As he spoke, he
suddenly took her by the wrist, and turned as if to lead her towards the
ghastly closet.

'No--no! Oh--no!' she cried, and her desperate wriggle out of his hand
revealed that the fright of the night had left more impression upon her
delicate soul than superficially appeared.

'Another dose or two, and she will be cured,' he said to himself.

It was now so generally known that the Earl and Countess were not in
accord, that he took no great trouble to disguise his deeds in relation
to this matter. During the day he ordered four men with ropes and
rollers to attend him in the boudoir. When they arrived, the closet was
open, and the upper part of the statue tied up in canvas. He had it
taken to the sleeping-chamber. What followed is more or less matter of
conjecture. The story, as told to me, goes on to say that, when Lady
Uplandtowers retired with him that night, she saw near the foot of the
heavy oak four-poster, a tall dark wardrobe, which had not stood there
before; but she did not ask what its presence meant.

'I have had a little whim,' he explained when they were in the dark.

'Have you?' says she.

'To erect a little shrine, as it may be called.'

'A little shrine?'

'Yes; to one whom we both equally adore--eh? I'll show you what it
contains.'

He pulled a cord which hung covered by the bed-curtains, and the doors of
the wardrobe slowly opened, disclosing that the shelves within had been
removed throughout, and the interior adapted to receive the ghastly
figure, which stood there as it had stood in the boudoir, but with a wax-
candle burning on each side of it to throw the cropped and distorted
features into relief. She clutched him, uttered a low scream, and buried
her head in the bedclothes. 'Oh, take it away--please take it away!' she
implored.

'All in good time namely, when you love me best,' he returned calmly.
'You don't quite yet--eh?'

'I don't know--I think--O Uplandtowers, have mercy--I cannot bear it--O,
in pity, take it away!'

'Nonsense; one gets accustomed to anything. Take another gaze.'

In short, he allowed the doors to remain unclosed at the foot of the bed,
and the wax-tapers burning; and such was the strange fascination of the
grisly exhibition that a morbid curiosity took possession of the Countes