Laughing again, she flicked Cleopatra’s neck with the reins, and started off at an easy swinging gallop, turning out of the woods into the carriage drive, and never checking her pace till she reached the house.

All that day she gave marked evidence that her reign as mistress of Abbot’s Manor had begun in earnest.  Changing her riding dress for a sober little tailor-made frock of home-spun, she flitted busily over the old house of her ancestors, visiting it in every part, peering into shadowy corners, opening antique presses and cupboards, finding out the secret of sliding panels in the Jacobean oak that covered the walls, and leaving no room unsearched.  The apartment in which her father’s body had lain in its coffin was solemnly unlocked and disclosed to her view under the title of ’the Ghost Room,’—­whereat she was sorrowfully indignant,—­so much so indeed that Mrs. Spruce shivered in her shoes, pricked by the sting of a guilty conscience, for, if the truth be told, it was to Mrs. Spruce’s own too-talkative tongue that this offending name owed its origin.  Quietly entering the peaceful chamber with its harmless and almost holy air of beautiful, darkened calm, Maryllia drew up the blinds, threw back the curtains, and opened the latticed windows wide, admitting a flood of sunshine and sweet air.

“It must never be called ‘the Ghost Room’ again,”—­she said, with a reproachful gravity, which greatly disconcerted and overawed Mrs. Spruce—­“otherwise it will have an evil reputation which it does not deserve.  There is nothing ghostly or terrifying about it.  It is a sacred room,—­sacred to the memory of one of the dearest and best of men!  It is wrong to let such a room be considered as haunted,—­I shall sleep in it myself sometimes,—­and I shall make it bright and pretty for visitors when they come.  I would put a little child to sleep in it,—­for my father was a good man, and nothing evil can ever be associated with him.  Death is only dreadful to the ignorant and the wicked.”

Mrs. Spruce wisely held her peace, and dutifully followed her new mistress to the morning-room, where she had to undergo what might be called quite a stiff examination regarding all the household and housekeeping matters.  Armed with a fascinating little velvet-bound notebook and pencil, Maryllia put down all the names of the different servants, both indoor and outdoor (making a small private mark of her own against those who had served her father in any capacity, and those who were just new to the place), together with the amount of wages due every month to each,—­she counted over all the fine house linen, much of which had been purchased for her mother’s home-coming and had never been used;—­she examined with all a connoisseur’s admiration the almost priceless old china with which the Manor shelves, dressers and cupboards were crowded,—­and finally after luncheon and an hour’s deep cogitation by herself in the library, she wrote out in a round clerkly hand certain ’rules and regulations,’ for the daily routine of her household, and handed the document to Mrs. Spruce,—­much to that estimable dame’s perturbation and astonishment.