ome trouble; but when she
was close to Castra Regis, there was no more possibility of concealment,
and the strange double following went swiftly on.

When she saw Mimi close to the hall door of Castra Regis and ascending
the steps, she followed. When Mimi entered the dark hall and felt her
way up the staircase, still, as she believed, following Lady Arabella,
the latter kept on her way. When they reached the lobby of the turret-
rooms, Mimi believed that the object of her search was ahead of her.

Edgar Caswall sat in the gloom of the great room, occasionally stirred to
curiosity when the drifting clouds allowed a little light to fall from
the storm-swept sky. But nothing really interested him now. Since he
had heard of Lilla's death, the gloom of his remorse, emphasised by
Mimi's upbraiding, had made more hopeless his cruel, selfish, saturnine
nature. He heard no sound, for his normal faculties seemed benumbed.

Mimi, when she came to the door, which stood ajar, gave a light tap. So
light was it that it did not reach Caswall's ears. Then, taking her
courage in both hands, she boldly pushed the door and entered. As she
did so, her heart sank, for now she was face to face with a difficulty
which had not, in her state of mental perturbation, occurred to her.

CHAPTER XXVII--ON THE TURRET ROOF

The storm which was coming was already making itself manifest, not only
in the wide scope of nature, but in the hearts and natures of human
beings. Electrical disturbance in the sky and the air is reproduced in
animals of all kinds, and particularly in the highest type of them
all--the most receptive--the most electrical. So it was with Edgar
Caswall, despite his selfish nature and coldness of blood. So it was
with Mimi Salton, despite her unselfish, unchanging devotion for those
she loved. So it was even with Lady Arabella, who, under the instincts
of a primeval serpent, carried the ever-varying wishes and customs of
womanhood, which is always old--and always new.

Edgar, after he had turned his eyes on Mimi, resumed his apathetic
position and sullen silence. Mimi quietly took a seat a little way
apart, whence she could look on the progress of the coming storm and
study its appearance throughout the whole visible circle of the
neighbourhood. She was in brighter and better spirits than she had been
for many days past. Lady Arabella tried to efface herself behind the now
open door.

Without, the clouds g