horses, and the general preparations for resuming the
journey.

It was now between ten and eleven; but the servant who rode armed with
them, according to the not unnecessary usage of the times, thought that
with a little judicious bribing of postboys they might easily reach
Mardykes Hall before three o'clock in the morning.

When the party set forward again, Lady Haworth was comparatively
tranquil. She no longer heard the unearthly mimickry of her sister's
voice; there remained only the fear and suspense which that illusion or
visitation had produced.

Her sister, Lady Walsingham, after a brief effort to induce something
like conversation, became silent. A thin sheet of snow had covered the
darkened landscape, and some light flakes were still dropping. Lady
Walsingham struck her repeater often in the dark, and inquired the
distances frequently. She was anxious to get over the ground, though by
no means fatigued. Something of the anxiety that lay heavy at her
sister's heart had touched her own.

CHAPTER XXVI

Perplexed

The roads even then were good, and very good horses the posting-houses
turned out; so that by dint of extra pay the rapid rate of travelling
undertaken by the servant was fully accomplished in the first two or
three stages.

While Lady Walsingham was continually striking her repeater in her ear,
and as they neared their destination, growing in spite of herself more
anxious, her sister's uneasiness showed itself in a less reserved way;
for, cold as it was, with snowflakes actually dropping, Lady Haworth's
head was perpetually out at the window, and when she drew it up, sitting
again in her place, she would audibly express her alarms, and apply to
her sister for consolation and confidence in her suspense.

Under its thin carpet of snow, the pretty village of Golden Friars
looked strangely to their eyes. It had long been fast asleep, and both
ladies were excited as they drew up at the steps of the George and
Dragon, and with bell and knocker roused the slumbering household.

What tidings awaited them here? In a very few minutes the door was
opened, and the porter staggered down, after a word with the driver, to
the carriage-window, not half awake.

"Is Lady Mardykes well?" demanded Lady Walsingham.

"Is Sir Bale well?"

"Are all the people at Mardykes Hall quite well?"

With clasped hands Lady Haworth listened to the successive answers to
these questions which her sister hastily put.