nument in
Craymoor church, which Ella and I named "the wicked woman."

"As I gazed on the strange scene before me I presently became aware of
three other figures which I had not noticed before. They were standing
in a small arched doorway in one corner of the room (where the servants'
bedroom now is) furtively watching the gay company. One was a pale,
careworn woman, apparently of about five-and-thirty, still beautiful,
though haggard and mournful-looking, with blue eyes and a fair
complexion.

"Her hands rested on the shoulders of two children, one a boy and the
other a girl, of about ten and eleven years of age respectively. They
much resembled their mother, and, like her, they were meanly dressed,
though no poverty of attire could hide the nobility of their aspect. I
noticed that the mother's eyes rested chiefly on the face of the tall
stately man before mentioned, who seemed unaware or careless of her
presence; and instinctively I knew him to be the father of her children
and the blighter of her life.

"As I looked and beheld all this, the lights vanished, the company
disappeared, and the room became dark and deserted. No, not quite
deserted, for I presently distinguished, seated on the window-seat by
the old oaken chest, the fair woman and her children again.

"The moonlight now streamed through the window upon the woman's face,
making it appear more ghastly and haggard than before. In her long thin
fingers she was holding up to the light a necklace of large pearls,
curiously interwoven in a diamond pattern, and on this the children's
eyes were fixed.

"She then hung it on the girl's fair neck, who hid it in her bosom. Both
children then twined their arms round their mother and kissed her
repeatedly, while her head sank lower and lower, and the paleness of
death overspread her features.

"This scene faded away as the other had done, and I saw the fair woman
no more.

"Then it seemed to me that many figures passed and repassed before the
window--the wicked woman (as I shall call her to distinguish her),
accompanied by a boy the image of herself, whom I knew to be her son. He
was apparently older than the fair-haired children, who also passed to
and fro, attired as servants, and generally employed in some menial
work.

"At last the wicked woman's son, with haughty gestures, ordered the
other boy to pick up something that lay on the ground, and when he
refused, he raised his cane as though to strike him. Be