The old man wiped away a tear or two in the darkness, but made no reply, and taking Percival's arm, they entered together the dark avenue and walked through the gloomy halls of the ancient castle, where presently, along one of the dim corridors, Shanno overtook them, her beautiful presence seeming suddenly to illumine the desolation with a soft warmth and radiancy. She led them both silently to her mother's chamber, where the earl knelt at the bedside, his face bowed upon the pillows, and the Black Horseman, tender and faithful physician as of old, administered such relief to the sufferer as lay in his power. But Lady Bryn Afon was already beyond the reach of human aid, and from her dark, hollow eyes the spirit looked forth with the far-off gaze which had already penetrated beyond the shadows of the grave, and looked upon the "things unseen." But at the sight of her loved ones the light of earthly love and tenderness once more shone out in her wasted countenance, and she clasped each in turn to her breast, murmuring fond words of parting. "Father," she murmured, "I sinned against you in my youth, and have deserved the sorrows which have fallen upon me in just punishment for my wilfulness. Yet I would have you all know that I have had a truly tender and loving husband in him whose name I have been proud to wear through all our mutual sufferings. Against him too have I sinned in concealing from him these many years our sweet daughter, but in his joy of new possession he has long since forgiven the past, and he knows that in the sight of God I verily thought it good to keep her from him. Yet has the good I hoped for been frustrated, and in punishment for my deception I must die with my hopes unfulfilled! Nay, weep not so bitterly, my sweet Shanno, nor cry to me for pardon! I have nought to forgive! I am at last content, for God has revealed to me on my bed of sickness the folly of my imaginations, and taught me that while His innocent children may not in this world escape the burden of their parents' sin, yet that there is laid up for them in heaven a brighter crown of glory, which you, my Primrose, and you, my brave Percival, shall surely wear by-and-by in that land to which I do but go before you. Oh, my husband!"--and with sudden energy she raised herself and flung her wasted arms round the neck of the weeping earl,--"my last wish and prayer on earth is, that through the gentle influences of this loved daughter, in whose charge I leave you, and of him who so truly loves her, you may come at your last hour to a peaceful death-bed like mine--that so, these two, though not in the way I have dreamed in my folly, may truly wipe out the memory of the curse from their father's home, and when their lives are ended, leave these old walls to crumble away into honoured ruin, re-echoing only with holy sounds and memories, before which the shadows of the past shall flee away."