“Der—lar—Vay—rah! Heaven and earth and the other place! I forget one end before I understand the other! That will never do! Say, what do they call you at home, when they are in a hurry, you know, and haven’t got time to sit down and repeat it all over slowly at their leisure?” “They call me Gloria.” “Glo—ree—ah! Well, that is three long syllables—a great deal too long for a short and busy lifetime! I would rather call you Glo’.” “Quite right, my dear Phil. You may call me Glo’.” “It suits you, too, for there’s a glow all around you! Well, then, Glo’, I am ready to escort you to Gryphynshold, Ghost Hall, Devil’s Den, for by all these names is your manor house known, lady,” said the strange girl, as she put on her hat and stood waiting. “I will be with you in a moment,” exclaimed Gloria, as she started up and left the room. She ran up stairs to put on her fur sack and cap, and then hurried down to join her escort. CHAPTER XXII WITHIN THE SHADOW Over all there hung a cloud of fear, A sense of mystery the spirit daunted, That said, as plain as whispered in the ear, “The space is haunted.” THOMAS HOOD. The two young girls walked out of the lodge and found themselves in a thicket of stunted cedar trees, that, because they were higher than her head, prevented Gloria from beholding one of the most magnificent and stupendous landscapes in the country. A few steps farther, however, brought them out upon the private road that led up to the house. It was a road so utterly neglected that the thicket of cedars on each side nearly met in the middle, and would have prevented any other than a foot-passenger from passing along it. This old road led upward all the way to a thickly-wooded knoll, on the summit of which, quite buried in pine and cedar trees, stood the old gray stone building with its heavy oaken doors and heavy oaken-shuttered windows. These were all wide open to the sun and air now. “Were you here when your grandmother—I mean your auntie, left the house?” inquired Gloria, as they approached the stone portico leading to the door. “No—oh, dear, no! I never lived here! I always wanted to, though!” replied the girl. “Come and stay with me, then, for a while, for I should like very much to have you.” “And oh, how I should like to come!” “And you would not be afraid of the ghosts?” “No! I don’t believe in them! I wish I could! I would rather see a ghost—if such a being exists—than anything else in the world! That is the reason why I want to live in this house—to watch and wait all day in lonesome rooms, and lay awake all night in hope of seeing a ghost. And if there is any particularly evil haunted room in the house—that is the one I wish to sleep in.”