“Do you really live in this house all alone, sir?” “Yes,” he replied. Her large eyes wandered over the delicately prepared luncheon, then returned to his quiet face. “But, really now, Mr. Delaney, there must be a housekeeper here. Else by whom could your meals be served?” she said. “By the fairies,” he replied, with perfect gravity. “You don’t expect me to believe that?” said Aline, pouting her rosy lips. “I hope you will. At least it is the only answer I can give you,” he retorted. Aline looked curiously at him. There was a slight smile on his face, but he spoke in grave earnest. She understood then that the secrets of the haunted house would remain secret still. He had no mind to reveal them to her. The rich color rose to her face as it suddenly flashed over her that he must think she made him a poor return for his courtesy by her pointed questions. “I beg your pardon for my impertinent questions,” she said. “I did not really mean to be rude. I was merely thoughtless.” “You are freely forgiven,” he answered, courteously. “And now I will thank you for your kindness, and go,” Aline continued, moving from the table and turning toward the door. Mr. Delaney walked by her side and opened the door for her with his quiet, courteous air. “You have done me the honor to be curious over my old house, Miss Rodney,” he said. “Perhaps this glimpse of its interior has not satisfied you. Do you care to examine any of the other rooms?” They were walking slowly along, side by side on the echoing floor of the wide, marble-paved hall, and Aline had just opened her lips to speak, but her answer, whether negative or affirmative, will never be recorded. It was frozen on her lips by a terrible interruption. The strange, brooding stillness that reigned throughout the great, gray stone mansion, was broken startlingly by a loud, prolonged shriek--a shriek of such terrible, diabolic, blood-curdling rage and hate, that it seemed to freeze the blood in Aline’s veins, and to cause every individual hair to stand erect upon her head with horror. Instinctively she threw out her hand, and clutching Mr. Delaney’s arm, stared up into his face with wide, terrified blue eyes, like a child’s appealing for protection. The shriek was repeated, followed by another, and another, each more terrible than the last. Those fearful cries struck terror to Aline’s heart. She could not determine whether they issued from male or female lips. It seemed to her frenzied fancy as if they did not belong to a human being, but rather to some vicious and diabolic spirit of the nether world. It “Was neither man nor woman, It was neither brute nor human, ’Twas a ghoul.” CHAPTER IV.