“No, but please tell it to me, dear lady,” said Em., who had all a child’s eagerness to hear a story. “It is very old; but one of my remote ancestors was a terrible domestic tyrant, and had, among many sons, only one beautiful daughter. She loved a poor young man, but was ordered by her father to marry an old one. Parents did not trifle in those days. Ethelinde was to be forced to obey. She was locked in her room and guarded till the wedding night. “The time came. The guests were assembled, the feast was spread. The bridegroom and his attendants waited in the hall, the bishop and the rector were ready in the drawing-room. The bride was dressed in splendid bridal array; but every once noticed how pale she looked, even to her lips. “At length the summons came and she went down, followed by her bridesmaids. “From the lower end of the hall her aged bridegroom came to meet her. He was bowing and smiling and holding out his hand. “But as he touched her she fell at his feet—DEAD! “The overtaxed heart had broken. There, those are the facts, Em.! The fiction is that on every anniversary of that fatal day the bride goes through her death march again, sometimes followed by a faithful attendant, sometimes alone. You _must_ have heard the story and forgotten it, else why should you have dreamed the dream?” “It was no dream, dear lady. Yours is a veritable ghost story, and I have seen a veritable ghost,” said Em. in a voice of awe. “Come, let us go to bed and sleep off such morbid fancies,” said Mrs. Lynn as she arose and rang for bedroom lights. CHAPTER XXVII EM.’S DAYS AT EDENGARDEN Within the island’s calm retreat She leads a sort of fairy life, Careless of victory or defeat, In the word’s ceaseless toil and strife. ANON. Our little heroine’s life in Edengarden seemed to her something like that of a princess in fairyland. She lived in ease and luxury, surrounded by beauty and splendor. No services were required from her. The Lady of Edengarden made out for her the programme of a course of reading which she recommended the girl to pursue, and Em. gratefully and gladly devoted a few hours of every morning to these studies. Mrs. Lynn also instructed her chosen pupil in the French and German languages, and in vocal and instrumental music, and in sketching and embroidery. Em. was very happy, or she would have been but for one tormenting thought which presented itself again and again—the thought that she herself was making no sort of return for all these benefits—no, nor doing any useful thing, as far as she could see, for any human being. This thought sometimes made Em. so unhappy that at length she felt forced to speak of it to her benefactress. She watched for an opportunity to do so, and it came at length.