alf-frightened, half-angry--

"Miles, how horrid of you! You must not stalk on ahead like that! I
shall be lost, and then what will become of me? For pity's sake keep
hold of my arm!"

She had walked a few paces forward as she spoke, but now she stopped
short, in response to a determined movement of the arm to which she
clung. Betty glanced upwards in surprise; she could not see the face so
near to her arm, but the blood chilled in her veins as a strange voice
answered slowly--

"But--I'm sorry, but I do not happen to be Miles!"

CHAPTER SIXTEEN.

LOST IN THE FOG.

The feeling of despair, of helplessness, of desolation, which overcame
Betty at that moment, remained with her as a poignant memory to the end
of her life. She was lost, as hopelessly lost as if she had been in the
midst of a solitary waste, though close at hand, perhaps only a few
yards away, were her own father and brother, the latter no doubt
desperately searching for her. Dr Trevor would make the best of his
way home with Cynthia, knowing his son to be as good a guide as himself.
Poor old Miles! He would have a bad time of it when he arrived home
alone;--yet he had not been to blame, for she herself had refused to
take his arm before leaving the Hall. "It looked so silly!" She had
intended to take it the moment they were in the street, but even that
one moment had been too long. As she heard the stranger's voice she
turned in a panic of fear, and tried to drag her hand from his arm, but
he held her tightly, saying, with an odd mixture of weariness and
impatience--

"Don't be foolish! You can do no good by running away. You can never
find your friends again in this blackness. Tell me where you want to
go, and I'll try to help you."

Betty trembled helplessly.

"But I must--I must try! It's a long way off--across the Park. Father
is here, and my brother, and some friends. I'll go back to the Hall--
they may go there to look for me."

"Look round!" said the strange voice, and Betty turned her head and
stared in amazement, for the great building had vanished as completely
as had Miles himself, and nothing was to be seen but a wall of darkness.
On every side she heard the movement of invisible forms, but their very
unreality added to the sense of desolation which possessed her. It was
terrible even to think of venturing alone through the ghost-like ranks.

Instinctively she clung more closely to her companion's arm, and, as i