placing the ear as close as may be to the surface of the well, the swishing sound of the wheel may be plainly heard." They stooped, leaning their heads through the iron rails, over the top of the well, and from far below heard clearly a faint, whispering sound in the water's black depths, so distant that in the dead silence of the ghostly corridor the ear could but just detect it. Primrose shivered, and Lady Rosamond sprang up, exclaiming, "After that I have had enough and will return home, Ivor, with all dutiful obedience. I have experienced a horror sufficient to satisfy the most morbid craving. Primrose, you are pale as death, and verily your 'each particular hair'--and mine likewise--'doth stand on end,' as good Master Shakespeare hath it. I doubt the wisdom of suffering you to gaze upon this awful spot, child. Tell her a cheerful tale, Ivor, to banish the thought from her mind, else will the vision of the boatman's daughter haunt her to-night in her dreams. Poor old man, I do verily pity him from my heart." "I am glad to have seen the place," said Primrose, "for many a time I have thought upon her sad fate, and have wondered if it could be true. Now I see it is but too likely a fate to befall any rash wanderer in this gruesome darkness. But I cannot forbear thinking that surely those left in charge of the castle were much to blame for letting her by any means gain possession of the key of this horrible place." "The housekeeper, left in charge at the time of the sad occurrence, never recovered from the shock," said Sir Ivor, "and her death was doubtless hastened by the remorse from which she suffered for her carelessness. The girl was however wild and wilful, and none will ever know where the fault lay. I now keep the key ever about my own person, nor dream of leaving it in the care of servants; but without so melancholy a warning, I doubt that I should have been so careful over it, so that I cannot too severely blame those before me for their seeming want of thought. In my father's day the passage had not been long wholly disused, and he was so well accustomed to allow myself and my brothers to roam freely about it, that fear of the well had little place in his mind. For our part, we were bold, lawless young termagants, and having no mother to restrain us, did much as we would, knowing scarce the name of fear. At the time of the accident my father was abroad, and my brothers and myself at Oxford, where I well remember the news reaching us, and our horror at such an event having come to pass in our absence. I was myself, on my return home, lowered into the well so far as the longest ropes would surfer me to descend, but nought was at any time discovered of the poor girl's remains, the bonnet caught on yon ledge of rock close to the well's mouth being the only means of judging of her sad fate."