“Forgive me, Lady Alice, if I erred in thinking you would rather command the silence of a gentleman to whom an accident had revealed your secret, than be exposed to the domestics who would have gathered round us.” Again she half raised herself, and again her eyes flashed. “A secret with _you_, sir!” “But, besides, Lady Alice,” I cried, springing to my feet, in distress at her hardness, “I heard the horse with the clanking shoe, and, in terror, I caught you up, and fled with you, almost before I knew what I did. And I hear it now--I hear it now!” I cried, as once more the ominous sound rang through my brain. The angry glow faded from her face, and its paleness grew almost ghastly with dismay. “Do _you_ hear it?” she said, throwing back her covering, and rising from the couch. “I do not.” She stood listening with distended eyes, as if _they_ were the gates by which such sounds entered. “I do not hear it,” she said again, after a pause. “It must be gone now.” Then, turning to me, she laid her hand on my arm, and looked at me. Her black hair, disordered and entangled, wandered all over her white dress to her knees. Her face was paler than ever; and her eyes were so wide open that I could see the white all round the large dark iris. “Did you hear it?” she said. “No one ever heard it before but me. I must forgive you--you could not help it. I will trust you, too. Take me to my room.” Without a word of reply, I wrapped my plaid about her. Then bethinking me of my chamber-candle, I lighted it, and opening the two doors, led her out of the room. “How is this?” she asked. “Why do you take me this way? I do not know the place.” “This is the way I brought you in, Lady Alice,” I answered. “I know no other way to the spot where I found you. And I can guide you no farther than there--hardly even so far, for I groped my way there for the first time this night or morning--whichever it may be.” “It is past midnight, but not morning yet,” she replied, “I always know. But there must be another way from your room?” “Yes, of course; but we should have to pass the housekeeper’s door--she is always late.” “Are we near her room? I should know my way from there. I fear it would not surprise any of the household to see me. They would say--‘It is only Lady Alice.’ Yet I cannot tell you how I shrink from being seen. No--I will try the way you brought me--if you do not mind going back with me.” This conversation passed in low tone and hurried words. It was scarcely over before we found ourselves at the foot of the staircase. Lady Alice shivered, and drew the plaid close round her. We ascended, and soon found the corridor; but when we got through it, she was rather bewildered. At length, after looking into several of the rooms, empty all, except for stray articles of ancient furniture, she exclaimed, as she entered one, and, taking the candle from my hand, held it above her head-- “Ah, yes! I am right at last. This is the haunted room. I know my way now.”