The terror of sudden death could not have exceeded that which rushed upon her heart when she was told that she must pass her night in the room where lay the coffin.
'An' you shan't have no candle, neither,' proceeded Clem, delighted with the effect she was producing.

'Come along! I'm off to bed, an' I'll see you safe locked in first, so as no one can come an' hurt you.' 'Miss! please!--I can't, I durstn't!' Jane pleaded in inarticulate anguish.

But Clem had caught her by the arm, was dragging her on, on, till she was at the very door of that ghastly death-cellar.

Though thirteen years old, her slight frame was as incapable of resisting Clem Peckover's muscles as an infant's would have been.

The door was open, but at that moment Jane uttered a shriek which rang and echoed through the whole house.