CHAPTER IX.
In a very few minutes I was once more in the grounds of that old gable house; the servant, who went before me, entered them by the stairs and the wicket-gate of the private entrance; that way was the shortest.
So again I passed by the circling glade and the monastic well,--sward, trees, and ruins all suffused in the limpid moonlight.
And now I was in the house; the servant took up-stairs the note with which I was charged, and a minute or two afterwards returned and conducted me to the corridor above, in which Mrs.Ashleigh received me.
I was the first to speak.
"Your daughter--is--is--not seriously ill, I hope.

What is it ?" "Hush!" she said, under her breath.

"Will you step this way for a moment ?" She passed through a doorway to the right.

I followed her, and as she placed on the table the light she had been holding, I looked round with a chill at the heart,--it was the room in which Dr.Lloyd had died.

Impossible to mistake.