of flowers.

It is amazing how different conditions can alter a scene: at noon, with
the hum from the busy streets, it was commonplace enough; by moonlight
it became a mystic bower of enchantment. The girls walked along very
quietly, treading on the grass so as to make no noise. A slight mist was
rising from the ground near the Abbey; in the rays of the moon it
resembled a lake. Everything, indeed, was altered. The outline of the
sumach bush was like a crouching tiger; the laburnum tassels waved like
skeleton fingers. It seemed a witching, unreal world.

Four rather scared girls crept along, clasping hands for moral support.
Each secretly would have been relieved to abandon the quest, but did not
like to be the first to turn tail. They had determined to walk from the
sun-dial to the Abbey wall and back again. So far the garden, though
mysterious, showed no signs of anything supernatural. They began to
pluck up courage, and even to talk to one another in low whispers. At
the ruins they turned and looked back towards the sun-dial. The
moonlight streamed along the flagged path, and shimmered on the clumps
of early yellow lilies.

What was that, stealing from under the shelter of the hawthorn tree? The
girls gasped and almost stopped breathing.

[Illustration: A TALL FIGURE, CLOTHED IN SOME WHITE GARMENT, WAS GLIDING
TOWARDS THEM.]

A tall figure, clothed in some long white garment, was gliding towards
them. It kept in the shadow, and they could see no details, only a light
mass that was slowly and steadily advancing apparently straight to where
they were crouching beside the wall. Fil was trembling like a leaf, Nora
declared afterward that her hair stood on end, Ingred and Verity felt
shivers run down their spines. Nearer and nearer came the white figure.
Its approach was more than flesh and blood could stand. With a wild
shriek Fil dashed across the lawn, followed closely by Nora, Ingred, and
Verity.

"Girls!" cried a clear and well-known voice. "Girls! Stop! What are you
doing here?"

There was no mistaking the tone of command of the head-mistress. Four
amazed and crestfallen damsels halted and turned back, to find Miss
Burd, attired in a white dressing-gown, standing in the moonlight on the
grass.

"What is the meaning of this?" she asked. "And why aren't you all in
bed?"

It is always difficult to give explanations, and (to such a
matter-of-fact person as Miss Burd) it seemed particularly silly to have
to