The room was pitch dark, and for a second or
two I thought I was still at Park Hill, and that Miss Chinfeather had
come back from heaven to tell me how much she loved me. But this thought
passed away like the slide of a magic lantern, and I knew that I was at
Deepley Walls. The moment I knew this I put out my arms with the
intention of clasping my unknown visitor round the neck. But I was not
quick enough. The kisses ceased, my hands met each other in the empty
air, and I heard a faint noise of garments trailing across the floor. I
started up in bed, and called out, in a frightened voice, "Who's there?"
"Hush! not a word!" whispered a voice out of the darkness. Then I heard
the door of my room softly closed, and I felt that I was alone.
I was left as wide awake as ever I had been in my life. My child's heart
was filled with an unspeakable yearning, and yet the darkness and the
mystery frightened me. It could not be Miss Chinfeather who had visited
me, I argued with myself. The lips that had touched mine were not those
of a corpse, but were instinct with life and love. Who, then, could my
mysterious visitor be? Not Lady Chillington, surely! I half started up
in bed at the thought. Just as I did so, without warning of any kind, a
solemn muffled tramp became audible in the room immediately over mine. A
tramp, slow, heavy, measured, from one end of the room to the other, and
then back again.
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