"Lord, what a change within us one short hour Spent in Thy presence will suffice to make! What heavy burdens from our bosoms take, What parched lands revive, as with a shower! We kneel, and all around us seems to lower; We rise, and all the prospect, far and near, Stands forth in sunny outline brave and clear. We kneel--how weak! we rise--how full of power! Then wherefore should we do ourselves this wrong, Or others, that we are not always strong; That we should be o'erburdened with our care, That we should ever faint and feeble be, Downcast or drooping, when with us is prayer, And hope, and joy, and courage are with Thee?" CHAPTER XXIV. A MISTAKE. It will be remembered that Emmie had, in the morning, tried the patience of Bruce by her strange indecision regarding a second change of apartments. It was now no superstitious fancy which made Emmie look upon the room next the haunted chamber as a post of peril. She entertained a dread lest Harper should on some night omit his usual precautions, and that Bruce should discover the presence of his dangerous neighbour. What then might ensue? The spirited young man would never suffer himself to be tied by such an oath as his sister had taken; and of the consequences which might follow his refusal Emmie trembled to think. It was this peril to Bruce which made Emmie regard a change of rooms as desirable on her brother's account, though certainly not on her own. "It would be very dreadful to me to know that only a wall divided me from that wicked man who threatened my life!" thought poor Emmie. "How could I rest if I heard him stealthily moving about so near, even though aware that he could not possibly reach me?" Had the maiden known that there was actually a door in that dividing wall, her terror would have been yet greater. But Emmie believed that the corridor entrance being bricked up, there was no outlet from the haunted chamber but by the door which opened on the secret stairs. Ignorant as she was of the means of nearer communication between the two apartments, it was but the strain on her nerves that Emmie dreaded when suggesting her own return to the room which had been assigned to her at the first.