“It is the coffin of Sir John Chillington, her ladyship’s late husband,” answered Sister Agnes, very gravely.  “He died thirteen years ago.  By his will a large portion of the property left to his widow was contingent on his body being kept unburied and above ground for twenty years.  Lady Chillington elected to have the body kept in that room which you were so foolish as to visit without permission; and there it will probably remain till the twenty years shall have expired.  All these facts are well known to the household; indeed, to the country for miles around; but it was not thought necessary to mention them to a child like you, whose stay in the house would be of limited duration, and to whom such knowledge could be of no possible benefit.”

“But why do you visit the room every midnight, Sister Agnes?”

“It is the wish of Lady Chillington that, day and night, twelve candles shall be kept burning round the coffin, and ever since I came to reside at Deepley Walls it has been part of my duty to renew the candles once every twenty-four hours.  Midnight is the hour appointed for the performance of that duty.”

“Do you not feel afraid to go there alone at such a time?”

“Dear Janet, what is there to be afraid of?  The dead have no power to harm us.  We shall be as they are in a very little while.  They are but travellers who have gone before us into a far country, leaving behind them a few poor relics, and a memory that, if we have loved them, ought to make us look forward with desire to the time when we shall see them again.”

Three weeks later I left Deepley Walls.  Madame Delclos was in London for a week, and it was arranged that I should return to France with her.  Major Strickland took me up to town and saw me safely into her hands.  My heart was very sad at leaving all my dear new-found friends, but Sister Agnes had exhorted me to fortitude before I parted from her, and I knew that neither by her, nor the Major, nor George, nor Dance, should I be forgotten.  I saw Lady Chillington for a moment before leaving.  She gave me two frigid fingers, and said that she hoped I should be a good girl, and attend assiduously to my lessons, for that in after life I should have to depend upon my own industry for a living.  I felt at the moment that I would much rather do that than have to depend through life on her ladyship’s bounty.

A few tears would come when the moment arrived for me to say farewell to the Major.  He tried his best, in his hearty, affectionate way, to cheer me up.  I flung my arms round his neck and kissed him tenderly.  He turned abruptly, seized his hat, and rushed from the room.  Whereupon Madame Delclos, who had been trying to look sympathique, drew herself up, frowned, and pinched one of my ears viciously.  Forty-eight hours later I was safely shut up in the Pension Clissot.

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