Page:The Mysterious Warning - Parsons (1796, volume 1).djvu/243

 "I thought," said Ferdinand, mentally, 'that if admitted to this house I could be content to remain here and spend my days in solitude, I supposed this mansion might be an asylum for the unfortunate, or the abode of undeserved misery, driven from a faithless world; but I fear there is more of guilt than suffering in this man; for affliction makes people plaintive, and if the mind is free from guilt, it naturally expands and grows communicative to a fellow sufferer. I know not what to conclude upon, more than a resolution not to make this my resting-place, should I be invited to do so, which seems not very likely to happen; yet I should be loath to depart without being better informed of the mystery that pervades here."

He sat ruminating on the occurrences that had befallen him some time, when again his ears were assailed by the same cries, though rather fainter, and being on the watch to catch the sound, he was convinced that it proceeded from the other side of the building, and from some place where the sound