tablet.

"To-morrow, at midnight, in the haunted chamber! If thou hast
courage, tarry there a while. Its occupant will protect
thee."--['Wherefore am I so bent on this adventure? To visit
the beggar in his lair!' thought she; and again she threw her
eyes on the billet.] "Peril threatens thine house, which thy
coming can alone prevent. Shouldest thou reveal but one word of
this warning, thy life, and those dear to thee, will be the
forfeit. From thine unknown monitor,

"THESE."

The guest in the boggart-chamber was Noman, to whom it had been
allotted, and though he told of terrible sights and harrowing
disclosures, he seemed to brave them all with unflinching hardihood,
and even exulted in their repetition. To remain an hour or two with
such a companion was in itself a sufficiently novel adventure; but
that harm could come from such a source scarcely entered her
imagination. A feeling of irrepressible curiosity stimulated her, and
prevailed over every other consideration. It was not like spending the
time alone; this certainly would have been a formidable condition to
have annexed. Besides, would it not be a wicked and a wanton thing to
shrink from difficulty or danger when the welfare and even life of one
so dear as her brother, peradventure, depended on her compliance.
Another feeling, too, more complicated, and a little more selfish it
might be, was the hidden cause to which her inclinations might be
traced.

"Mine unknown monitor!" she repeated the words, and a thousand strange
and wayward fancies rose to her recollection. Often had she seen, when
least expecting it, a stranger, who, in whatsoever place they met,
preserved a silence respectful but mysterious. She had seen him in the
places of public resort, in the solitary woods, and in the highways;
but his reserve and secrecy were unbroken. When she inquired, not an
individual knew him; and though his form and features were indelibly
traced on her memory, she could never recall them without an effort,
which, whether it was attended with more of pain than of pleasure, we
will not venture to declare. Once or twice she had fancied, when
awaking in the dead stillness of the night, that an invisible
something was near and gazing upon her; but this feeling was soon
forgotten, though often revived whenever she was more than usually
sensitive or excited. The figure of the Moor was wonderfully similar
to the form of the my