ll the
more industriously as a farm of the same kind, only some fifteen miles
away, was now offered to all bidders, under another landlord. Gertrude,
who felt Sir Bale's unkindness all the more that she was a distant
cousin of his, as it had proved on comparing notes, was very strong in
favour of the change, and had been urging it with true feminine
ingenuity and persistence upon her husband. A very singular dream rather
damped her ardour, however, and it appeared thus:

She had gone to her bed full of this subject; and she thought, although
she could not remember having done so, had fallen asleep. She was still
thinking, as she had been all the day, about leaving the farm. It seemed
to her that she was quite awake, and a candle burning all the time in
the room, awaiting the return of her husband, who was away at the fair
near Haworth; she saw the interior of the room distinctly. It was a
sultry night, and a little bit of the window was raised. A very slight
sound in that direction attracted her attention; and to her surprise she
saw a jay hop upon the window-sill, and into the room.

Up sat Gertrude, surprised and a little startled at the visit of so
large a bird, without presence of mind for the moment even to frighten
it away, and staring at it, as they say, with all her eyes. A sofa stood
at the foot of the bed; and under this the bird swiftly hopped. She
extended her hand now to take the bell-rope at the left side of the bed,
and in doing so displaced the curtains, which were open only at the
foot. She was amazed there to see a lady dressed entirely in black, and
with the old-fashioned hood over her head. She was young and pretty, and
looked kindly at her, but with now and then a slight contraction of lips
and eyebrows that indicates pain. This little twitching was momentary,
and recurred, it seemed, about once or twice in a minute.

How it was that she was not frightened on seeing this lady, standing
like an old friend at her bedside, she could not afterwards understand.
Some influence besides the kindness of her look prevented any sensation
of terror at the time. With a very white hand the young lady in black
held a white handkerchief pressed to her bosom at the top of her bodice.

"Who are you?" asked Gertrude.

"I am a kinswoman, although you don't know me; and I have come to tell
you that you must not leave Faxwell" (the name of the place) "or Janet.
If you go, I will go with you; and I can make you fear m