'If you are in doubt about the way,' said Emily, 'had we not better enquire it at the chateau yonder, between the trees ?' 'No,' replied La Voisin, 'there is no occasion.

When we reach that brook, ma'amselle, (you see the light upon the water there, beyond the woods) when we reach that brook, we shall be at home presently.

I don't know how I happened to mistake the path; I seldom come this way after sun-set.' 'It is solitary enough,' said Emily, 'but you have no banditti here.' 'No, ma'amselle--no banditti.' 'What are you afraid of then, my good friend?
you are not superstitious ?' 'No, not superstitious; but, to tell you the truth, lady, nobody likes to go near that chateau, after dusk.' 'By whom is it inhabited,' said Emily, 'that it is so formidable ?' 'Why, ma'amselle, it is scarcely inhabited, for our lord the Marquis, and the lord of all these find woods, too, is dead.

He had not once been in it, for these many years, and his people, who have the care of it, live in a cottage close by.' Emily now understood this to be the chateau, which La Voisin had formerly pointed out, as having belonged to the Marquis Villeroi, on the mention of which her father had appeared so much affected.
'Ah! it is a desolate place now,' continued La Voisin, 'and such a grand, fine place, as I remember it!' Emily enquired what had occasioned this lamentable change; but the old man was silent, and Emily, whose interest was awakened by the fear he had expressed, and above all by a recollection of her father's agitation, repeated the question, and added, 'If you are neither afraid of the inhabitants, my good friend, nor are superstitious, how happens it, that you dread to pass near that chateau in the dark ?' 'Perhaps, then, I am a little superstitious, ma'amselle; and, if you knew what I do, you might be so too.

Strange things have happened there.