Probably we were the only devotees that had knelt before the shrine in hundreds of years, and the Virgin had heard our supplication.

It was a proposition I should have laughed at and held to scorn prior to that time.
After leaving the shrine, it was only a few minutes till the coach turned to the left into a narrow road, and we were approaching the end of our rough journey.

We continued to travel at a brisk trot and came to the forest, "dark and wild," of which Lilly had spoken.

Thus far his "calculations" were correct, and I was beginning to take hope that they would continue so to the end.

After half an hour on the winding road through the forest, the drivers halted at the gate of which Lilly had spoken, and in ten minutes more drew rein beside the high brick wall surrounding Merlin House.
Without the least trouble we found the gates or doors in the wall, and truly enough, they were of "thick oak" so strong that we could not feel them vibrate when we tried to shake them, and so firmly locked in the middle that we almost despaired of opening them.