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 open the door. A key was now heard on the outside; and the solemn boy entering, said to Lady Margaret, "I am come to tell your honour, that our dame being taken with the qualms and stericks, is no ways able of shewing you any further into the Priory." "I trust, however, that you will immediately shew us out of it, Sir," said Gondimar. "It not being her fault, but her extrame weakness," continued the boy: "she desires me to hope your honours will excuse her." "We will certainly excuse her; but," added Lady Margaret, "I must insist upon knowing from her, or from some of you, the cause of the groans we heard, and what all those absurd stories of ghosts can arise from. I shall send an order for the house to undergo an immediate examination, so you had better tell all you know."

"Then, indeed, there be no mischief in them groans," said the boy, who appeared indifferent whether the house were