will first seek an éclaircissement with the lady, and then betake myself to Lord Sunderland, who may perhaps afford me some clue to the meaning of my singular night-adventure."

In pursuance of this resolution he made his toilet as becomingly as possible, bought a showy sword-knot of a loyal colour for his new rapier, betook himself to St. James's Square, and in a flutter of expectation and curiosity knocked at the door of the handsome mansion occupied by the lively Catherine.

CHAPTER XI.

The graves stood tenantless, and the sheeted dead Did squeak and gibber in the Roman streets. SHAKSPEARE.

FOR the present we must leave Walter seeking an éclaircissement with the fair Catherine and the Prime Minister, as it is high time that we should elucidate the mysterious occurrences at Orchard Place, from which we have been so long absent, and whose horrified inmates, it will be recollected, we left half-maddened by their terrors of the supposed apparition. Startled by the screams of the servants, as the imagined spectre passed through the hall, Hetty Chervil, who had not yet undressed, hurried to Mrs. Colyton's chamber, imagining that the disturb

ance must have been occasioned by a return of her hysterical fit. She found that lady in a state of the most alarming agitation and excitement; for the servants, too much terrified to move, paid no attention to her repeated ringings, and as Edith, who slept in the adjoining chamber, had not answered her loud calls, the anxious mother concluded that some calamity must have happened to her, perhaps even that she had been smitten with death. Notwithstanding her illness and debility, she was on the point of getting up to satisfy her misgivings, when Hetty entered, and having remained a short time to pacify and reassure her as well as she could, offered to go to Edith's room, and bring her to her mother. Proceeding to her apartment with this intention, she found her sitting up in the bed, shivering violently, and rubbing her hands as if to warm them, while she gazed around her with the vacant bewildered look of one whose faculties were wandering. Hetty's entrance, however, seeming to recall her scattered senses, she exclaimed be

seechingly- -"O Hetty, dearest Hetty! comfort me, comfort me. I scarcely know where I am, nor what has happened to me, but I have had a frightful dream, and I am perishing with cold."

"With cold!" cried Hetty, embracing her"Good heavens, Edith, so you are; your flesh is as chill as marble. What can have occasioned it? You cannot have been lying in the bed, where I left you fast asleep."

"I feel as if something strange and frightful had occurred, and yet I know not what it is. I am ill-I am shivering all over, but I can think of nothing but my dream, if indeed it was a dream; for now that consciousness has returned to me, I can almost fancy it to have been a reality. Methought that I awoke in the dusk of the evening, and that having been weeping as usual for our poor dear departed Richard, I betook myself to his room, in the closet of which were hanging up the roquelaire and hat, which he latterly wore whenever he was able to quit the house. The sight of them,

as it seemed to me, suggested the idea of putting them on, and of proceeding to the churchyard, that I might try to soothe my grief by shedding tears upon his grave. I dreamed that I did so accordingly, and while I was thus mournfully sobbing and crying, methought I saw my mother approach, who fled in apparent alarm as soon as she beheld me. I remained some time longer seated on the grave, when I arose, picked up my mother's scarf, which she had let fall in the church-yard, walked home through the dark, knocked at the hall-door, ascended the stairs, and returned to my bed. I know not whether I may trust to my sensations, but I have the impression on my mind that, being awakened by fearful screams and outcries, I sate up in my bed, and soon after saw you entering my room with a candle. This was my dream, dearest Hetty; but why I should feel so deadly cold and ill, I cannot explain to you."

During this recital, Hetty had seen enough to convince her that she had not been listening