ent. "If you _know_ me to be guiltless, you _must_ know who is
guilty! Nay, you _do_ know it! You can not only save my life, but clear
my fame."

"Hush! I know nothing, but that you are guiltless. I can _do_ nothing
but save your life."

"You took me away in the absence of my husband. Why could you not have
waited a little while until his return, and--"

"Ha! ha! ha!" laughed the girl, breaking in upon Sybil's speech; "waited
until his return, and take two strangers, himself and his servant, into
our confidence! Moloch would have brained me, or Belial would have
poisoned me if I had done such a thing. We are knaves, but not fools,
Mrs. Berners."

"But when will you communicate with him, to relieve his dreadful
suspense?"

"As soon as it shall be safe to do so. Our first care must be our own
safety, but our second, will be yours."

Sybil said no more at the moment; but sat looking at the speaker, and
thinking of all that had befallen her in the Haunted Chapel. Could this
bright, warm, spirited creature possibly be the "damp girl" whose two
nightly visitations had appalled her so much? She put the question:

"Tell me; are you the one who came twice to my bed-side and lay down
beside me, or is there another?"

Her strange hostess laughed aloud, and clapped her hands.

And there immediately appeared before them, as if it had dropped from
the sky, or risen out of the earth, a figure that caused Sybil to start
and utter a half-suppressed scream.

It was that of a small, thin girl, so bloodless that her complexion was
bluish white; her hair and eyes were also very light, and her dress was
a faded out blue calico, that clung close to her form; her whole aspect
was cold, damp, clammy, corpse-like, as she stood mutely with hanging
hands before her summoner.

"For Heaven's sake, who is she?" inquired Sybil, under her breath.

"We call her Proserpine, because she was reft from the upper world and
brought down here. She is my maid, my shadow, my wraith, my anything you
like, that never leaves me. She it was who visited you in idleness or
curiosity, I suppose. She bore the taper before you, when you came
through the underground passage. More than this I cannot tell you of
her, since more I do not know myself. You may go now, Proserpine. And
tell old Hecate to hurry up the breakfast, as we have company this
morning. And do you come and let me know when it is ready."

Sybil kept her eyes on the pallid girl to see where