“Oh, Miss Nina, dear, darling child, so it is really yourself, and not your ghost that walked by night as they said? Oh, my dear young mistress, my poor wronged baby, why did you run away from us that awful night?” CHAPTER XXVIII. ENTRAPPED. In the thick darkness that wrapped them around, Nina made a convulsive effort to tear herself away, but she was like a baby, indeed, in the clasp of Kitty’s strong arms, and the fiercer her struggles the tighter the maid held her. “Oh, my dear young lady, what do you want to go away for?” she cried, reproachfully. Haven’t you given us trouble enough already, running away like you did, and us thinking you were dead by that dreadful laudanum? And why did you do it, anyhow? Didn’t you know it would break all our hearts to lose you, and you the last one of your race! Be quiet, my lamb, my darling, for I shall not let you go again, oh, no, no, never!” “Let me go, Kitty! How dare you keep me against my will?” Nina cried, sharply, making frantic efforts to escape from her captor. “Let me go, and keep my secret for me, please! I went away because I was unhappy here, and I drank the laudanum, too, but Doctor Fielding was so cruel he would not let me die! But I must go away again to-night, and I shall never come back to my old home! No one must ever know that I am alive, Kitty!” Significant silence followed on the part of Kitty. She held the frail, weak girl tightly in the clasp of one arm, and with the other managed to strike a light again. By its soft clear beams she gazed into Nina’s face with dismay. “Oh, my dear young lady, what have you been doing to yourself?” she exclaimed, “You are all thin and pale, and your eyes like saucers!” “I have been ill, Kitty, I have been very near death,” said Nina, nestling her golden head wearily against the faithful creature’s breast and ceasing her fitful, futile efforts at escape. “Near death! I should think so indeed,” cried the maid, “You look like a real ghost!” Nina only sighed and clung closer to the maid. Oh, how good it seemed to be back with her dear, kind Kitty again, after all she had endured. The girl had been her childhood’s nurse, and her girlhood’s maid, always dearly loved by Nina, who looked upon her as the only present link between her and that happy past, before her idolizing parents died and left her alone. Her love for the girl was more like that of friend for friend than of mistress for servant. She said to herself that since Kitty had caught her there would be no harm in lingering a little while. Kitty would tell her something of all that had happened since she went away, and then she would persuade the good creature to let her go away again, perhaps, even, Kitty would go with her. The future would not be quite so dark and desolate if she had this true soul to lean upon. So she said, coaxingly: