Castlewood! We who know and watch
him should detect any difference of that nature at the moment of its
occurrence. His lordship's health goes vacillating; a little up now,
and then a little down, like a needle that is mounted to show the dip
of compass; and it varies according to the electricity, as well as the
magnetic influence."

"What doctor told you that?" I asked, seeing in a moment that this
housekeeper was dealing in quotation.

"You are very"--she was going to say "rude," but knew better when she
saw me waiting for it--"well, you are rather brusque, as we used to call
it abroad, Miss Castlewood; but am I incapable of observing for myself?"

"I never implied that," was my answer. "I believe that you are most
intelligent, and fit to nurse my cousin, as you are to keep his
house. And what you have said shows the clearness of your memory and
expression."

"You are very good to speak so," she answered, recovering her temper
beautifully, but, like a true woman, resolved not to let me know any
thing more about it. "Oh, what a clap of thunder! Are you timid? This
house has been struck three times, they say. It stands so prominently.
It is this that has made my lord look so."

"Let us hope, then to see him much better to-morrow," I said, very
bravely, though frightened at heart, being always a coward of thunder.
"What are these storms you get in England compared to the tropical
outbursts? Let us open the window, if you please, and watch it."

"I hear myself called," Mrs. Price exclaimed. "I am sorry to leave you,
miss. You know best. But please not to sit by an open window; nothing is
more dangerous."

"Except a great bunch of steel keys," I replied; and gazing at her nice
retreating figure, saw it quickened, as a flash of lightning passed,
with the effort of both hands to be quit of something.

The storm was dreadful; and I kept the window shut, but could not help
watching, with a fearful joy, the many-fingered hazy pale vibrations,
the reflections of the levin in the hollow of the land. And sadly I
began to think of Uncle Sam and all his goodness; and how in a storm,
a thousandfold of this, he went down his valley in the torrent of the
waves, and must have been drowned, and perhaps never found again, if he
had not been wearing his leathern apron.

This made me humble, as all great thoughts do, and the sidelong drizzle
in among the heavy rain (from the big drops jostling each other in the
air, and dashing ou