no knowledge of
their craft, who were prodigal of space, and illiberal in all matters of
convenience.

The Manor was the sort of house which might best be described as
inadequate for the wants of ordinary people. For instance, its
drawing-rooms were large out of all proportion, whereas its dining-room,
morning-room and library were ridiculously small. It had a spacious hall
and wide landings, but its stairs were steep and narrow, and there was
not even one decent-sized bedroom in the house. All the rooms had low
ceilings and were small. Their only virtue was that there were such a
number of them.

Catherine and Mabel liked the bedrooms at the Manor, because being
rather distinct in their tastes, and decidedly given to quarrel over the
arrangements of their separate properties, it was impossible for them to
sleep together. Each girl had a room of her own, and these rooms did not
even touch, for Mabel slept near her mother, and Catherine away in a
wing by herself. This wing could only be reached by a spiral staircase,
and was pronounced by the timid Mabel to be odiously lonely.

Catherine, however, knew no fears, and enjoyed the privacy of her quaint
little bedroom with its sloping roof and lattice window.

She bade her brother and sister good-night, and went up to it, now.

"You'll go to bed at once, won't you, Kitty?" said Mabel, whose eyes
were half-shut. "Perhaps it _was_ only a rabbit I heard. Only why
did it flash white, and why did it sigh? Well, I won't think of it any
more. Good-night, Kitty, how wide awake you look."

Catherine kissed her sister and sought her distant chamber. She waited
until all was silent in the house, then slowly and cautiously she
unbarred her door and went downstairs.

In the large square entrance hall she took a white shawl from a stand.
She hung it across her arm, and still walking very softly reached the
hall door, drew back its bolts, removed its chain, opened it, and went
out into the porch.

Her mother had stood in that porch two nights fgo. Catherine thought of
her now. The remembrance of her mother's face caused her to sigh and
shiver as if she had been struck with sudden cold. Leaving the hall door
ajar she wrapped the white shawl about her shoulders, and then walked a
little way across the wide gravel sweep in front of the house.

Her footsteps crunched the gravel, but her brother and sister slept in
distant bedrooms and could hear nothing. The moon was riding full and