d ghosts at last!"

Her cries brought the whole household up from the basement; but
regardless of their wonder and alarm, Grantley Mellen carried his wife
away towards the library, and laid her upon a couch.

It was some moments before Elizabeth Mellen opened her eyes, then she
glanced about with a vacant, startled look, as if unable to comprehend
what had happened.

Her husband was standing in the shadow, gazing down at her with the
strange, moody look so unlike the active alarm which would have filled
the mind of most men, and she did not at first perceive his presence.

"I thought I saw Grantley," she murmured. "I--I have gone mad at last."

"Elizabeth!"

She struggled up on the couch, and looked towards him with a wild
expression of the eyes, forced out by recent terror or sudden joy at
finding that she had not been deceived by some mental illusion.

"Is it you, Grantley?" she exclaimed. "Is it really you?"

"It is I," he said; "but it is a strange welcome home to a man when he
finds his wife wandering about in the storm, and sees her faint at the
sound of his voice."

Elizabeth Mellen forced her physical strength back by a sheer exercise
of will. She sat upright--a singular expression passed over her face--an
inward struggle to appear like herself and act as was natural under the
circumstances.

"I was so frightened," she gasped; "I did not expect you for a
fortnight--perhaps a month. When I heard your voice I can't tell what I
thought--a dread--a terror of something terrible--something
supernatural, I mean, came over me."

"But what could have taken you out of doors on a night like this?" he
persisted.

She did not hesitate; she hurried to answer, but it was like a person
repeating words studied for the occasion, and all the while her two
hands clutched hard at the arm of the sofa.

"I don't know what drove me out, the storm made me wild. I thought of
the sea--you on it, perhaps--I don't know why I went."

"You are wet," he said--"thoroughly drenched. You must change your
dress."

She seemed to grasp at the opportunity to go away, and started up with
such eagerness that his suspicious eyes noticed it.

"This is a singular meeting," he said, bitterly; "two years apart, and
not a word of welcome."

She turned impulsively towards him, and threw her arms about his neck,
with a burst of passionate tears.

"I do love you, Grantley," she cried; "I do love you! I am so glad to
see you; but this fri