d the housekeeper to get a couple of rooms ready, and
though I am afraid it will be rather roughing it, I shall be awfully
glad if you can come."

I had arranged to meet a man in London on special business that very
evening, and could not put him off; but my irresistible desire to see
the old place from the description I had heard of it decided me to make
an effort to fall in as well as I could with Cressley's plans.

"I wish I could go with you to-day," I said; "but that, as it happens,
is out of the question. I must run up to town on some pressing business;
but if you will allow me I can easily come back again to-morrow. Can you
not put off your visit until to-morrow evening?"

"No, I am afraid I cannot do that. I have to meet several of the
tenants, and have made all arrangements to go by the five o'clock train
this afternoon."

He looked depressed at my refusal, and after a moment said thoughtfully:

"I wish you could have come with me to-day. When Murdock could not come
I thought of you at once--it would have made all the difference."

"I am sorry," I replied; "but I can promise faithfully to be with you
to-morrow. I shall enjoy seeing your wonderful old Hall beyond anything;
and as to roughing it, I am used to that. You will not mind spending one
night there by yourself?"

He looked at me as if he were about to speak, but no words came from his
lips.

"What is the matter?" I said, giving him an earnest glance. "By the way,
are you going to sleep in the turret room?"

"I am afraid there is no help for it; the housekeeper is certain to get
it ready for me. The owner of the property always sleeps there, and it
would look like a confession of weakness to ask to be put into another
bedroom."

"Nevertheless, if you are nervous, I should not mind that," I said.

"Oh, I don't know that I am absolutely nervous, Bell, but all the same I
have a superstition. At the present moment I have the queerest
sensation; I feel as if I ought not to pay this visit to the Hall."

"If you intend to live there by-and-by, you must get over this sort of
thing," I remarked.

"Oh yes, I must, and I would not yield to it on any account whatever. I
am sorry I even mentioned it to you. It is good of you to promise to
come to-morrow, and I shall look forward to seeing you. By what train
will you come?"

We looked up the local time-table, and I decided on a train which would
leave Liverpool about five o'clock.

"The very one that