light of moon and day the churchyard
presented a melancholy scene of devastation.

The spire and belfry had fallen upon and in front of the church, and
the long building stood like a dismasted vessel among the billowy
graves, that swelled as a restless sea around its grey weather-beaten
sides. Here and there ancient headstones had been blown down on the
mounds they guarded; and one venerable willow in the centre of a
cluster of graves had been torn from the earth, and its network of
roots lifted until they rested against a stone cross.

Awed by the solemn influence of the time and place, and painfully
reminded of her own peril on the previous night, Regina stepped down
from the base of the monument, and approached the figure crouching
over the blasted smoking roots. There was no rustle of grass or leaf
as she limped across the dewy turf, but warned by that mysterious
magnetic instinct which so often announces some noiseless, invisible
human presence, Hannah lifted and turned her head. With a scream of
superstitious terror she sprang to her feet.

Very ghostly the girl certainly appeared, in her snowy mull muslin
dress and white shawl, as she leaned forward on the cane, and looked
steadily at the old woman. Her long black hair, loosened and
disordered by tossing about all night, hung over her shoulders and
gave a weird, almost supernatural, aspect to the blanched and
sorrowful young face, which in that strange chill light seemed
wellnigh as rigid and pallid as a corpse.

"Hannah Hinton!"

"God have mercy! Who are you?"

Hannah seized the spade and brandished it, with hands that shook from
terror.

"You wicked woman, do you want to kill me? Put down that spade."

Regina advanced, but the old woman retreated, still waving the spade.

"Hannah, are you afraid of me?"

"Good Lord! Is it you, Regina?"

"Your sin makes you a coward. Did you really think me a ghost?"

"It is true, I am afraid of everything now, even of my own shadow,
and once I was so brave. But what are you doing here? I thought you
were crippled? What are you tracking me for?"

She threw down the spade, ran forward, and seized the girl's
shoulder, while a scowl of mingled fear and rage darkened her
countenance.

"You are watching, trailing me like a bloodhound! Is it any of your
business where I go? Suppose I do choose to come here and say my
prayers among the dead, while other folks are sound asleep in their
beds, who has the right to hinde