aves, and I am always awed, rather than
pleased, by that mysterious still light which shines with such a strange
dim luster in deep places among trees. It may convict me of want
of taste and absence of due feeling for the marvelous beauties of
vegetation, but I must frankly own that I never penetrate far into a
wood without finding that the getting out of it again is the pleasantest
part of my walk--the getting out on to the barest down, the wildest
hill-side, the bleakest mountain top--the getting out anywhere, so that
I can see the sky over me and the view before me as far as my eye can
reach.

After such a confession as I have now made, it will appear surprising to
no one that I should have felt the strongest possible inclination, while
I stood by the ruined outhouse, to retrace my steps at once, and make
the best of my way out of the wood. I had, indeed, actually turned to
depart, when the remembrance of the er rand which had brought me to the
convent suddenly stayed my feet. It seemed doubtful whether I should be
admitted into the building if I rang the bell; and more than doubtful,
if I were let in, whether the inhabitants would be able to afford me
any clew to the information of which I was in search. However, it was my
duty to Monkton to leave no means of helping him in his desperate object
untried; so I resolved to go round to the front of the convent again,
and ring at the gate-bell at all hazards.

By the merest chance I looked up as I passed the side of the outhouse
where the jagged hole was, and noticed that it was pierced rather high
in the wall.

As I stopped to observe this, the closeness of the atmosphere in the
wood seemed to be affecting me more unpleasantly than ever.

I waited a minute and untied my cravat.

Closeness? surely it was something more than that. The air was even
more distasteful to my nostrils than to my lungs. There was some faint,
indescribable smell loading it--some smell of which I had never had any
previous experience--some smell which I thought (now that my attention
was directed to it) grew more and more certainly traceable to its source
the nearer I advanced to the outhouse.

By the time I had tried the experiment two or three times, and had made
myself sure of this fact, my curiosity became excited. There were plenty
of fragments of stone and brick lying about me. I gathered some of them
together, and piled them up below the hole, then mounted to the top,
and, feeling ra