"I beg your pardon, sir, I am afraid I disturbed you; but I have been three times to see if you were not coming down, and I found you so soundly asleep I did not like to wake you. Mr. Strahan has finished breakfast, and gone out riding; Mr. Margrave has left,--left before six o'clock." "Ah, he said he was going early." "Yes, sir; and he seemed so cross when he went. I could never have supposed so pleasant a gentleman could put himself into such a passion!" "What was the matter?" "Why, his walking-stick could not be found; it was not in the hall. He said he had left it in the study; we could not find it there. At last he found it himself in the old summerhouse, and said--I beg pardon--he said he was sure you had taken it there: that some one, at all events, had been meddling with it. However, I am very glad it was found, since he seems to set such store on it." "Did Mr. Margrave go himself into the summer-house to look for it?" "Yes, sir; no one else would have thought of such a place; no one likes to go there, even in the daytime." "Why?" "Why, sir, they say it is haunted since poor Sir Philip's death; and, indeed, there are strange noises in every part of the house. I am afraid you had a bad night, sir," continued the servant, with evident curiosity, glancing towards the bed, which I had not pressed, and towards the evening-dress which, while he spoke, I was rapidly changing for that which I habitually wore in the morning. "I hope you did not feel yourself ill?" "No! but it seems I fell asleep in my chair." "Did you hear, sir, how the dogs howled about two o'clock in the morning? They woke me. Very frightful!" "The moon was at her full. Dogs will bay at the moon."