The projecting window was dark; there seemed to be no light in the whole house. She looked over the gate anxiously for Christian--no one was visible--dark ever-green shrubs looking dead and stern among the gay spring verdure, stood out in ghostly dimness along the garden; the house looked even more gloomy and dismal than heretofore, and the night was advancing. Anne tried the gate; it opened freely. She went lightly along the mossed and neglected path to the principal door. It was evidently unused, and in grim security barred the entrance; she passed the projecting window again, and with some difficulty found a door at the side of the house, at which she knocked lightly. There was evidently some slight stir within; she thought she could hear a sound as of some one listening. She knocked again--there was no response--she repeated her summons more loudly; there was nothing clandestine in her visit to Christian. She fancied she could hear steps ascending a stair, and echoing with a dull and hollow sound through the house. Presently a window above was opened, and the face of an old woman, buried in the immense borders of a white night-cap, looked out: "Eh! guid preserve us. Wha are ye, disturbing honest folk at this hour o' the night; and what do ye want?" "Is Miss Lillie not within?" said Anne in disappointment. "Miss Lillie! muckle you're heeding about Miss Lillie; its naething but an excuse for theftdom and spoliation; but I warn ye, ye'll get naething here. Do ye ken there's an alarm-bell in Schole?" "I am alone," said Anne, "and have merely come to see Miss Lillie, I assure you. You see I could do you no injury." "And how div I ken," said the cautious portress a little more gently, "that ye havena a band at the ither side of the hedge?" "You can see over the hedge," said Anne, smiling in spite of her impatience, "that I am quite alone. Pray ask Miss Lillie to admit me; she will tell you that I came by her own appointment. "A bonnie like hour for leddies to be visiting at," said the old woman; "and how div ye ken that Miss Lillie will come at my ca'?" "Pray do not keep me waiting," said Anne, "it is getting late. Tell Miss Lillie that I am here." "And if I were gaun to tell Miss Lillie ye were here, wha would take care o' the house, I wad like to ken? Ye're no gaun to pit your gowk's errands on me. If I had the loudest vice in a' Scotland, it wadna reach Miss Lillie, an I cried till I was hoarse." "You don't mean to say," exclaimed Anne, "that she is not at home!--that Miss Lillie has left Schole?" "Ay, deed div I--nothing less. Mr. Patrick and her gaed away last night' to see their friends in the west country. Is that a'? If ye had a hoast like me, and were as muckle fashed wi' your breath, ye wadna have keeped your head out of the window sae long as I have done." "Did she leave no word?" said Anne, "no message--or did she say when she would return?"