LITERATURE.

Globe, Volume VI, Issue 652, 21 July 1876, Page 3

LITERATURE.

WHITE SATIN.

( Continued .)

e So it would—so it would,’ agreed Baldwin.

And, witk no wish to reflect on the discretion of these two good servants, I must say it was a mercy that Mr Woolner did not catch sight of their faces just then, being absorbed in his punch. In the meantime Lady Lisle, with all her pretty wits about her, was kneeling on the floor of the fireplace cupboard in Sir James’s room, collecting a good roll of deeds, and smiling to herself as she glanced leisurely over them. It really was good sport outwitting Mr Woolner in this wonderful way—such a sharp, clever men, as people called him, too ! ‘There must be something in him very foolish,’ Lady Lisle decided. ‘Sir James would never be cheated so absurdly.' She sat in the cupboard till the house was quite silent, and then stole back to her hiding-place. The only danger was that she might become foolhardy from success. The next morning, when Mr Woolner and his assistants were busy with the great chest in the lumber-room, she actually went in broad daylight into the hall, and began to dive into the chest there, where certain precious deeds were hidden under the best tablecloths. An odd place, you will say ; but in those uncertain times people thought it safer to have their valuable things scat-

lered about in ttoHkely places. The bundle of parchments was safe in Lady Lisles hands, and she had closed the lid, when a lad came running into the hall: it was Mr Woolner’s groom, a rather pert and forward boy He stopped short when he saw the lady standing there. She fixed her eyes on him and stood perfectly still; but I suppose

anything that falls short of the really supernatural is not so effective in the matter-of-fact light of day. The boy stared at her ; he had not seen the ghost before, and this looked to him very like a real lady in a white satin gown, _ . n ‘Wbat’s your will, madam ? Shall 1 ten Mr Woolner you’re here ?’ said the boy, after a moment’s silence. There was no movement, and no answer ; it certainly was strange. ‘ Nay, then, I will/ said young Tony, and away he scampered to the lumber room, where the village blacksmith, with Mr Woolner looking on, was working at the iron hinges of the great box. . r ‘Please, sir, there’s a lady in the hall. She wouldn’t speak, but there she stands in white. I thought I’d best tell you.’ ‘ Mum, you young fool!’ answered his master. ‘l’ve seen enough of her. Shut the door ; we don’t want her here.’ ‘ What! was it the ghost then ? whispered Tony to the butler, who was standmg by. < booby! Couldn’t you see that ? Didn’t you hear us tell how she came into the hall last night ?’ ... ‘What, the same, all in white shiny stuff?’ responded Tony in the same undertone. ‘ Ghost ! I thought ghosts were thin, bo that you could see through them. Go and see for yourself. No more of a ghost than me.’ . ‘Hold your tongue, you stupid ape. You’ll never be drowned, so take that for your comfort.’ And the butler weht to help in raising the great heavy lid. Tony was not satisfied to have all his former ideas of ghosts overthrown in this way, and presently slipped out, ran downstairs, and peeped cautiously round the corner into the hall. One thing was certain ; whether she belonged to this world or the other, the lady in white satin was there no longer. Chapter VI. THE LETTERS. After her encounter with the sceptical Tony, Lady Lisle became more cautious, and only ventured out when she was pretty sure not to be seen. The easiest part of her work was over. It was comparatively nothing to snatch a definite thing from a definite place ; but Sir James had said that Dick had left his letters all about the house, and that among them there were three special letters from my Lord Derwentwater, which would of themselves cost Dick his head. Every night for a week, when all the house was quiet, Lady Lisle stole from one to (another of the old well-known rooms, along narrow panelled passages, up and down the mysterious little flight of steps that went winding and twisting about in the upper part of the house. It was often snowy and stormy; the wind was a friend to her, for she could move without so much fear of being heard ; and all the world outside was a wild waste, with great deep drifts here and there. Where was Sir James? she wondered. Across the sea by this time, perhaps; safe in France with ■ King James the Third, who no doubt had welcomed him as he deserved. ‘He little knows what I am doing!’ she thought. *We shall laugh over it when we meet again. O blessed Mary, that it may not be long I’ For after the first fun and novelty of ghostship had worn off, the poor ghost herself began to be sick of her masquerading. Cold shrinking feelings would come over her; she would start nervously sometimes as she passed before a mirror, or when her shadow came sweeping after her through some low dark doorway. Baldwin had warned her that Mr Woolner had found nothing of any value in the great chest, and was sour and angry in consequence ; she had better avoid him as much as possible for fear of his suspecting a trick. During these dismal December nights she turned out every drawer and desk in the house, [and collected by degrees a packet of letters from Dick’s friends, more or less dangerous, all of them ; they would have borne serious witness against him and many others at the coming trials. But those three, the worst of all, which Lord Dcrwentwatcr had written to him before the fatal day at Preston, and which had overruled his brother’s more prudent counsels, and carried him off to join the forlorn hope there—those three were nowhere to be found. Lady Lisle hunted for them till she began to despair. (To he continued.